t3 


c  .-•"-  - 


■^ 


BSHmH 

■ 
m 

H 


ms& 


m 


FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 


REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,  D.  D. 


BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 


THE   LIBRARY  OF 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


ptvlflioo    «<^ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://archive.org/details/josiahgOOplun 


JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 


NOV   4  1931 

Josiah  Gilbert  Holland 


V 


BY 

IVIES.   H.    M.    PLUNKETT 


WITH  PORTRAITS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNEE'S  SONS 
1894 


Copyright,  1894,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


TROW  DIRECTORY 

PRINTING  AND   BOOKBINOING  COMPANY 

NEW    YORK 


Uo  tbe 

WIFE 

WHO   SO  FAITHFULLY  WALKED    AT   DR.    HOLLAND'S   SIDE 

THIS  BOOK  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 

BY 

HER  FRIEND  OF  MANY  YEARS 
H.  M.  P. 


PEEFATOKT  NOTE 

J.  G.  Holland  has  been  dead  thirteen  years,  and 
hitherto  no  formal  record  of  his  life  has  been  put 
forth. 

To  perpetuate  the  memory  of  a  man  whose  name 
was,  for  many  years,  a  household  word,  this  book 
has  been  undertaken.  So  much  of  it  is  taken  from 
his  own  works,  that,  in  a  measure,  it  is  an  autobio- 
graphical chronicle,  and  so  much  of  the  remainder 
is  made  up  of  the  judgment  of  others  concerning 
him  and  his  works,  that  the  part  taken  by  the  per- 
son whose  name  appears  on  the  title-page,  resembles 
that  of  the  cement  in  a  mosaic,  which  unites  and 
retains  in  position  materials  already  prepared. 

But  as  it  has  grown  under  her  hand,  it  has 
seemed,  more  and  more,  a  work  eminently  worthy 
of  being  done. 

H.  M.  P. 

Pittsfield,  Mass.,  February,  1894. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I. 

PAGES 

Boyhood  and  Early  Home — Ancestry— Inherited  Traits— 
His  Father  and  Mother — Life  at  Northampton — 
School-days  and  Factory-work — Early  Evidence  of 
Literary  Bent, 1-12 

CHAPTER   II. 

First  Literary  Production— Study  at  the  High  School — 
Delicate  Health— Becomes  a  Writing  master— Stud- 
ies Medicine  —  Abandons  Medicine  for  Journal- 
ism      13-23 


CHAPTER   III. 

Marriage  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Chapin — Partnership  with 
Dr.  Charles  Robinson  —  Abandons  Medicine  —  A 
Teacher  in  Richmond — Superintendent  of  Schools 
in  Vicksburg — Begins  his  Newspaper  Career — The 
"Springfield  Republican" — The  History  of  Western 
Massachusetts, 24-35 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Apostle  to  the  New  Englanders  takes  up  his  Mis- 
sion— The  "Timothv  Titcomb  "  Letters — Publishes 
his  First  Book— "Gold  Foil," 3G-43 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   V. 

PAGES 

His  First  Novel,  and  the  Beginning  of  his  Lecturing 
Career  —  "Bittersweet,"  "Miss  Gilbert's  Career," 
and  the  Civil  War — Eulogy  on  Lincoln,      .     .     .     44-56 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Undertakes  the  "Life  of  Lincoln" — Complete  Har- 
mony with  his  Subject — View  of  Lincoln's  Essen- 
tial Traits  —  His  Religious  Side  and  Deep  Melan- 
choly,  57-67 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Becomes  the  Possessor  of  "  Brightwood" — A  Pioneer  in 
Domestic  Sanitation — Publication  of  "  Kathrina  " — 
Invited  to  Edit  Hours  at  Home — European  Sojourn 
—  Founding  of  Scribner's  Monthly — Death  of  Mr. 
Scribner — Illustrations  of  the  Magazine — Pride  in 
his  Lay  Pulpit, 68-84 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Robert  Collyer  on  the  Success  of  Scrilmefs  Monthly,  and 
the  quality  of  "  Topics  of  the  Time  " — First  Symp- 
toms of  Heart  Disease— Character  of  his  Editorial 
Contributions  —  Lessons  from  the  Deaths  of  Fisk 
and  Tweed — The  Revised  Version  of  the  Bible — 
Dogmatic  Theology, 85-98 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Elements  of  Dr.  Holland's  Power— His  Religious 
Experience — Account  of  Judge  Underbill — Spiritual 
Experience  at  Richmond — Church  Work  at  Spring- 
field      99-111 


CONTENTS  XI 

CHAPTER   X. 

PAGES 

Churcli  Connections— Dr.  Gladden' s  Memorial  Sermon — 
Influence  of  Dr.  Drummond  —  Formation  of  the 
Memorial  Church  —  Association  with  the  u  Brick 
Church"— Teaching  Sunday  School  in  Paris — Con- 
versation with  Mr.  De  Vries  —  "  Arthur  Bonni- 
castle," 112-127 


CHAPTER    XI. 

Literary  Success  a  Plant  of  Slow  Growth  —  "  Bitter- 
Sweet "  published  when  he  was  Forty — Criticisms  of 
It— James  Russell  Lowells  review  in  The  Atlantic 
Monthly — "Thanksgiving  Day' — Observations  on 
the  Bible 128-145 


CHAPTER   XII. 

Publication  of  "Kathrina" — Dr.  Holland's  Doctrine  of 
Art  a  Ministry— Sudden  Death  in  October,  1881— 
Poetical  Tributes  of  E.  C.  Stedman  and  Dr.  Glad- 
den,      146-15! 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

Memorial  Services — In  Springfield,  New  York,  Alexan- 
dria Bay,  and  Belchertown —  Eulogies  of  Edward 
Egcdeston.  George  S.  Merriam.  and  Others  —  Dr. 
Bevan's  Sermon  —  Discourse  of  Rev.  P.  W.  Ly- 
man,          159-182 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

Dr.  Holland's  Will  —  Tribute  of  his  Associates  in  the 
Magazine  Editorship  —  The  Secular  Press  on  his 
Power  and  its  Sources  —  Tribute  of  the  Religious 
Papers — His  Family,  Grave,  and  Monument,  .     183-208 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Portrait  of  J.  G.  Holland  {from  a  photograph  by 

Sarony), Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Birthplace  of  Dr.  Holland,  Belchertown,  Mass.      1 

Portrait  of  Mrs.  Holland, 24 

J.  G.  Holland— 1800, 44 

TnE  Buff  Cottage, 70 

Brightwood, 88 

Bonnie  Castle, 122 

Dr.  Holland's  Grave, 208 


rfr* 


mm-^ 


The    Birthplace   of   Dr.  Holland 
Belchertown,  Mass. 


JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 


CHAPTER  I. 

Boyhood  and  Early  Home— Ancestry— Inherited  Traits — 
His  Father  and  Mother — Life  at  Northampton— School- 
days and  Factory  -  work  —  Early  Evidence  of  Literary 
Bent. 

An  English  statesman,  on  being  asked  the  best 
way  in  which  to  produce  a  brilliant  man,  replied, 
"  Give  him  parts  and  poverty."  Nature  gave  Josiah 
Gilbert  Holland  parts,  and  circumstances  supplied  a 
degree  of  poverty  that  spurred  him  to  the  utmost 
use  and  improvement  of  his  powers  ;  and  yet  he 
was  eminently  well-born,  for  his  industrious  and 
upright  parents  could  trace  their  origin  back  to  the 
very  beginning  of  New  England  through  a  succes- 
sion of  the  typically  diligent  and  pious  men  and 
women  who  gave  the  region  its  distinctive  character. 

John  and  Judith  Holland  were  members  of  the 
church  that  was  formed  in  Plymouth,  England,  and 
emigrated  with  their  pastor  to  Dorchester,  Mass.; 
and  whatever  thread  of  Dr.  Holland's  ancestry  we 


2  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

trace  to  its  beginnings,  brings  us  to  one  of  those 
God-fearing  Puritans  who  settled  about  the  "Bay." 
His  mother  was  born  in  Hebron,  Conn.,  but  grew 
up  to  womanhood  in  the  Gilbert  homestead  in  Bel- 
chertown,  Mass.,  and  in  that  town  his  father  came  to 
man's  estate,  and  the  twain  were  married  November 
5,  1810.  In  1812  the  town  passed  through  a  re- 
markable revival  of  religion,  and  among  the  one 
hundred  and  seven  converts  who  united  with  the 
church  in  consequence,  were  Mr.  Harrison  Holland 
and  his  wife,  Anna  Gilbert.  The  husband  was 
known  ever  afterward  as  a  modest,  thoroughly  ear- 
nest Christian,  and  the  impression  made  by  what 
the  old-fashioned  New  England  ministers  called  his 
"  walk  and  conversation "  is  described  by  his  son 
in  the  poem  of  "Daniel  Gray,"  printed  in  the  Atlan- 
tic Monthly  in  1859.     It  is  as  follows  : 

If  I  shall  ever  win  the  home  in  heaven 
For  whose  sweet  rest  I  humbly  hope  and  pray, 

In  the  great  company  of  the  forgiven 
I  shall  be  sure  to  find  old  Daniel  Gray. 


Old  Daniel  Gray  was  not  a  man  who  lifted 
On  ready  words  his  freight  of  gratitude, 

And  was  not  called  upon  among  the  gifted, 
In  the  prayer-meetings  of  his  neighborhood. 


INHERITED   CHARACTERISTICS 

He  had  a  hearty  hatred  of  oppression, 

And  righteous  words  for  sin  of  every  kind  ; 

Alas,  that  the  transgressor  and  transgression 
Were  linked  so  closely  in  his  honest  mind  ! 

Yet  that  sweet  tale  of  gift  without  repentance 
Told  of  the  Master,  touched  him  to  the  core, 

And  tearless  he  could  never  read  the  sentence  : 
"Neither  do  I  condemn  thee  :  sin  no  more." 


A  practical  old  man,  and  yet  a  dreamer, 

He  thought  that  in  some  strange,  unlooked-for  way 

His  mighty  Friend  in  heaven,  the  great  Redeemer, 
Would  honor  him  with  wealth  some  golden  day. 

This  dream  he  carried  in  a  hopeful  spirit 
Until  in  death  his  patient  eye  grew  dim, 

And  his  Redeemer  called  him  to  inherit 

The  heaven  of  wealth  long  garnered  up  for  him. 

The  wife  and  mother  would  certainly  be  classed 
among  persons  then  described  as  "  devoted,"  and  it 
was  the  deeply  religious  character  of  these  parents 
that  so  stamped  itself  on  the  son,  that  he  inevitably 
viewed  men  and  events  first  and  chiefly  from  the 
moral  standpoint.  He  resembled  his  mother  in 
features  and  physique,  but  derived  his  mental  char- 
acteristics from  his  father — with  a  difference. 

His  father  owned  and  ran  a  carding  -  machine, 
and,  sixty  years  ago,  when  all  the  woollen  yarns,  and 
most  of  the  flannel  and  blankets,  and  mucli  of  the 


4  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

cloth  worn  by  men  were  of  domestic  manufacture — 
''homespun  " — his  was  an  important  industry  ;  but 
a  single  carding-machine,  though  owned  by  its  op- 
erator, was  but  an  inadequate  instrument  with  which 
to  win  bread  for  a  wife  and  six  children,  even  in  the 
most  strenuous  hands  ;  and  in  the  transition  to 
"  factories  "  that  took  place  between  1820  and  1840, 
it  was  quite  displaced  and  superseded.  Moreover, 
its  owner  was  essentially  a  dreamer.  He  was  always 
inventing  ingenious  trifles,  and  sometimes  made 
verses,  and  held  the  fatuously  sanguine  view  that 
some  other  place  and  some  distant  morrow  held  a 
boon  and  blessing  denied  to  the  here  and  now. 

"  For  while  lie  wrought  with  strenuous  will 
The  work  his  hands  had  found  to  do, 

He  heard  the  fitful  music  still 

Of  winds  that  out  of  dream-land  blew  ; 

The  din  about  him  could  not  drown 
What  the  strange  voices  whispered  round.'* 

Among  his  other  inventions,  worked  out  after  his 
older  sons  had  gone  into  a  silk-mill,  was  a  reel  for 
holding  the  silk  when  unwound  from  the  cocoon. 
The  power  of  the  almost  infinitesimal  "  royalty  "  on 
patented  articles  to  build  up  colossal  fortunes  had 
not  then  been  demonstrated,  and  Mr.  Holland's 
honorable  and  confiding  spirit  could  not  imagine  the 
unprincipled  meanness  that  would  deliberately  rob 


REMOVAL   TO   NORTHAMPTON  0 

a  man  of  the  fruits  of  his  brain  ;  and,  besides,  very 
likely  he  could  not  command  the  small  but  indis- 
pensable sum  of  ready  money  needed  to  obtain  a 
patent.  So  others  reaped  where  he  had  sown  ;  but 
the  invention  itself  was  so  complete  and  opportune 
that  the  raw  silk  comes  from  China  to-day  wound 
on  the  machine  that  he  invented. 

Following  that  ignis  fatuus,  through  which  he 
was  always  "to  be  blessed,"  he  removed  from  Bel- 
chertown  to  Heath,  back  again,  thence  to  Granby, 
and  from  there  to  South  Hadley  ;  but  finally,  and 
where  the  household  "  made  a  stand,"  to  Northamp- 
ton. His  old  business  had  long  before  this  van- 
ished wholly,  so  that  when  living  in  Granby,  when 
Josiah  was  about  fifteen  years  old,  his  visible  means 
of  support  had  dwindled  to  casual  day's-work  for 
farmers,  and  the  family  resources  were  eked  out  by 
the  braiding  of  palm-leaf  hats  by  the  daughters. 
His  poverty  touched  the  lowest  point  at  this  period. 
He  said  to  an  old  friend  afterward  :  "  My  poverty 
turned  when  I  left  South  Hadley.  I  had  not  a 
pound  of  meat  nor  a  handful  of  flour  left,  and  I 
didn't  know  where  the  next  meal  was  to  come  from." 
During  the  short  time  lived  in  that  town,  the  fam- 
ily had  occupied  no  fewer  than  three  different 
houses,  and  afterward,  in  alluding  to  the  removal  to 
Northampton,  Dr.  Holland  said  "  the  Holland  fam- 
ily concluded  not  to  move  any  more,"  accompanying 


6  JOSIATI   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

the  remark  with  a  look  which  clearly  conveyed  the 
notion  that  the  decision  -was  largely  his  own  ;  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that,  though  only  seventeen  years 
of  age,  he  had  passed  the  Rubicon  that  separates 
boyhood  from  manhood,  and  become  the  leading 
spirit  that  was  to  dominate  the  plans  and  fortunes 
not  only  of  himself,  but  of  the  family  as  well. 

Some  of  the  pictures  in  "Miss  Gilbert's  Career" 
and  "Arthur  Bonnicastle"  are  believed  to  have  been 
drawn  from  personal  experiences  of  their  author. 
But  though  the  home  was  poor,  it  was  the  abode  of 
affection,  and  above  all  of  that  peace  that  passeth 
understanding ;  for  the  mother,  as  well  as  the  father, 
possessed  a  rarely  beautiful  and  serene  character. 
Anna  Gilbert  Holland  was  a  typical  New  England 
wdfe  and  mother,  whose  ideals  of  woman's  sphere 
and  wifely  duty  had  been  formed  from  her  earliest 
childhood  on  the  models  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures; 
and  moreover,  from  the  time  when  she  had  been 
"  converted  "  there  had  been  added  that  lofty  spirit 
of  self-abnegation  and  submission  to  the  Divine 
Will,  that  was  designated  "  devoted."  From  the 
time  when  her  reception  into  the  visible  church  an- 
nounced to  the  world  that  her  face  was  set  toward 
the  heavenly  city,  her  soul  dwelt  in  the  atmosphere 
of  the  eternal  and  the  invisible — she  looked  on  the  life 
that  now  is  as  merely  the  staging  that  wras  to  serve 
in  building  up  a  character  that  should  eventually 


HIS    MOTHERS   CHARACTER  7 

win  the  Master's  "well  done  ;"  and  as  the  days — 
which  in  a  family  where  there  were  six  or  seven  chil- 
dren, were  inevitably  full  of  care — glided  by  she 
literally  felt  that, 

"  She  nightly  pitched  her  moving  tent 
A  day's  march  nearer  home." 

It  is  easy  for  the  flippant  critic  of  the  Puritans  to 
sneer  at  their  strictness  and  to  deplore  what  the 
said  critic  regards  as  their  bare  and  cheerless  lives  ; 
but  the  sun  never  looked  down  upon  sweeter,  purer, 
or  happier  homes  than  theirs,  where  the  day  began 
with  a  prayer  for  strength  to  meet  its  vicissitudes, 
and  closed  with  a  grateful  recognition  of  its  mer- 
cies. Mrs.  Holland  was  full  of  that  womanly  courage 
and  patience  that  met  the  inevitable  difficulties  of 
life  cheerfully.  The  "  heart  of  her  husband  safely 
trusted  in  her,"  and  she  was  the  staff  on  which  he 
leaned  when  his  pecuniary  troubles  were  at  their 
darkest  ;  and  it  was  always  a  matter  of  thankfulness 
with  Dr.  Holland  that  she  outlived  his  father,  who 
was  very  dependent  on  her  serene  Christian  courage. 
At  about  the  time  when  Dr.  Holland  attained  his 
majority,  a  deep  shadow  fell  upon  her  life  in  the 
death,  in  the  compass  of  fifteen  months,  of  her  three 
daughters — two  of  consumption  and  one  of  measles. 
She  never  recovered  from  the  blow,  and  nothing  in 
her  son's  life  is  more  beautiful  than  the  tender  fore- 


8  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

tb ought  and  devotion  through  which  he  strove  to 
make  her  forget  her  sorrow. 

Sixty  years  ago  the  chasm  that  separates  the  rich 
from  the  poor  was  by  no  means  as  wide  as  it  is  to- 
day, and  New  England  possessed  an  order  of  aris- 
tocracy whose  claims  are  hinted  at  in  Cowper's 

"  But  higher  far  my  proud  pretensions  rise, 
The  son  of  parents  passed  into  the  skies," 

and  a  family  whose  united  heads  belonged  to  the 
church,  and  whose  lives  matched  their  professions, 
belonged  to  that  high  order  of  respectability,  not  to 
say  nobility.  Dr.  Holland  personally  belonged  to 
that  class  of  persons  "  whose  souls  by  nature  sit  on 
thrones,"  no  matter  by  what  degree  of  poverty  or  of 
misfortune  obscured.  There  was  not  a  particle  of 
arrogance  in  him,  but  it  never  occurred  to  him  that 
he  was  not  the  peer  in  resj^ectability  of  any  man,  and 
in  one  of  his  books,  where  a  discussion  is  going  on 
as  to  the  relative  shades  of  blueness  in  the  blood  of 
certain  families,  he  goes  right  to  the  heart  of  the  mat- 
ter by  making  the  speaker  say,  "  God  makes  new 
Adams  every  da}\"  Certainly  He  makes  some  men 
with  such  an  irrepressible  bent  toward  this  or  that 
line  of  work,  that  they  cannot  escape  this  destiny  of 
their  faculties.  J.  G.  Holland  was  one  of  these,  al- 
though it  took  till  he  was  thirty  years  old  for  him  to 
make  sure  of  his  work  and  place  in  the  world — to  f  nl- 


EARLY    LITERARY   TENDENCIES  9 

fil  his  mission  and  deliver  bis  message — witb  what  in- 
defatigable faithfulness  wrought  out  and  delivered, 
let  his  life-story  tell ;  for  it  may  as  well  be  said,  first 
as  last,  that  no  matter  wbat  literary  form — poem, 
story,  essay — bis  writings  took,  be  was  essentially  a 
preacher,  and  ever  and  always  an  expounder  of  those 
things  that  make  for  righteousness.  If  ever  his  sad- 
hearted  mother  had  a  dream  for  him,  it  was  that  he 
might  be  a  minister  ;  and  when  she  once  expressed 
a  regret  that  her  wish  had  not  been  granted,  be 
pointed  out  the  larger  sphere  of  influence  given  him 
in  the  newspaper,  though  he  hardly  thought  she  was 
convinced. 

Of  course,  it  was  the  "visionary"  dreaming  fa- 
ther who  was  quick  to  discern  the  subtle  some- 
thing that  differentiated  this  boy,  and  showed  him 
to  be  out  of  the  common,  and  he  cherished  every 
line  of  bis  verses,  no  matter  bow  boyish  or  juvenile. 
When  so  young  as  to  sleep  in  a  trundle-bed  be- 
side his  parents,  he  called  out  :  (;  Oh,  Father,  I've 
made  a  verse  !  "  and  repeated, 

k'  I  like  a  little  pigeon, 

I  think  it  is  very  good  meat, 
But  in  the  colder  region 

They  have  no  pigeon  to  eat." 

It  merely  shows  the  tendency  of  bis  thoughts  to 
clothe  themselves  in  ordered  words,   for,  in  those 


10  JOSIAII   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

days  were  no  children's  books,  or  magazines,  or 
journals  full  of  every  sort  of  stimulus  to  precocious 
literary  efforts  ;  but  the  careful  writing  out  and  pres- 
ervation of  it  by  the  father  shows  to  what  quarter 
the  son  would  look  for  an  approving,  encouraging- 
smile,  when,  later,  his  powers  should  begin  to  un- 
fold. 

Wherever  the  family  had  lived  the  boys  had  at- 
tended the  public  schools,  picking  up  whatever 
stray  pennies  they  could  earn  by  driving  the  cows 
to  pasture,  or  "  doing  chores  ;"  but  when  the  family 
were  in  South  Hadley,  Josiah  went  regularly  to 
work  in  a  factory,  boarding  in  the  common  board- 
ing-house. The  overseer  of  the  room  in  which  he 
worked  said  he  was  "  dreamy  "  and  abstracted,  and 
frequently  reproved  him  for  letting  his  threads 
break,  or  for  being  too  slow  in  mending  them.  On 
one  occasion,  having  been  specially  offensive  in  his 
manner,  the  boy  drew  himself  up  to  his  full  height, 
and  with  defiant  eyes  said,  "I'll  give  you  to  under- 
stand, if  I  live  many  years,  I  was  born  for  something 
other  than  to  tend  a  spinning-jenny!"  Poverty  had 
indeed  knotted  a  whip  of  scorpions  to  scourge  him 
to  the  utmost  use  of  his  faculties>  that  he  might 
escape  from  an  utterly  distasteful  life.  Mrs.  Stowe 
says  that  the  only  dissipation  New  England  girls  of 
those  far-away  times  knew,  was  to  go  to  each  other's 
houses  to  sleep,  and  then  lie  awake  all  night  and 


SCHOOL-DAYS  11 

talk  ;  and  certainly  it  was  a  great  relief  and  de- 
light for  at  least  two  boys,  in  the  secluded  part  of 
South  Hadley,  where  a  friend  of  Josiah's  then  lived. 
Though  he  was  not  yet  seventeen,  many  of  the  grave 
subjects  afterward  discussed  in  the  letters  to  various 
persons  by  Timothy  Titcomb,  were  talked  or  rather 
"lectured"  over  in  the  nights  of  these  days,  of  which 
M.  S.  Mills  Cook,  of  Granby,  still  retains  a  vivid 
memory.  Books  were  a  rarity  in  the  Holland  home 
— not  even  a  county  paper  was  taken — and  Josiah's 
onlv  resource  to  satisfy  the  intellectual  craving  that 
he  felt,  was  to  borrow  from  the  severely  "ortho- 
dox "  minister — Parson  Moody — his  standard  works 
in  divinity  by  Emmons,  Griffin,  Hopkins,  and  Ed- 
wards, all  of  which  were  read  through,  and  as  one 
after  another  was  completed  and  returned,  the  good 
man  predicted  that  "  that  boy  would  make  his  mark 
in  the  world." 

Let  no  one  imagine  that  he  was  deficient  in  virile 
and  positive  qualities,  because  he  eschewed  pro- 
fanity and  every  form  of  coarseness.  At  school  he 
was  ready  for  the  boyish  "  tussle  "  that  would  show 
"who  was  who,"  and  won  the  championship  so 
squarely  from  "  the  other  big  boy  "  as  to  be  thence- 
forth the  legitimate  object  of  the  hero-worship  of 
the  little  fellows.  His  irrepressible  propensity  for 
writing  exercised  itself  on  all  possible  topics  and 
occasions  ;   his  "  compositions  "   generally   were   in 


12  JOSIAII    GILBERT  HOLLAND 

verse,  and  one  quite  ambitious  "  Address  to  the 
Comet,"  sent  bis  teachers  off  into  predictions  of 
future  fame  ;  while  his  love  for,  and  facility  in  ac- 
quiring, words  easily  made  him  the  victor  in  all 
the  spelling  matches. 


CHAPTER  II. 

First  Literary  Production  — Study  at  the  High  School— Deli- 
cate Health — Becomes  a  Writing  master — Studies  Medi- 
cine— Abandons  Medicine  for  Journalism. 

Before  the  Holland  family  reached  its  last  and 
fortunate  home  in  Northampton,  the  boy  had  formed 
the  resolution  "  to  be  an  educated  gentleman  " — 
these  are  his  own  words — a  resolve  that  he  kept  con- 
stantly in  mind,  though  he  passed  through  many 
dark  and  discouraging  hours.  Northampton  had  a 
superior  High  School,  and  that  he  determined  to 
attend  ;  but  to  relieve  the  household  of  expense  on 
his  account,  he  became  an  inmate  of  Judge  Dewey's 
family,  rendering  those  multifarious  services  com- 
prehended in  the  phrase  "  doing  chores  for  his 
board."  It  was  while  living  here  that  he  first  saw 
a  product  of  his  pen  in  print — a  poem  founded 
on  the  fact  that  a  little  son  of  Judge  Dewey  had 
planted  a  tree  in  his  father's  grounds  which  con- 
tinued to  live  after  the  boy  had  died,  and  was  cher- 
ished as  a  precious  memento  by  the  parents.  The 
incident  supplied  a  substratum  for  four  verses, 
which  were  sent  to  the  Youth's  Companion,  then  a 


14  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

twelve  by  fourteen  sheet,  but  the  only  publication 
of  its  class  in  all  New  England,  if  not  in  the  coun- 
try. Long  after  this,  when  Dr.  Holland's  books 
were  read  by  the  hundred  thousands,  a  literary  club 
iu  Ohio,  which  had  taken  up  his  life  and  writings 
for  discussion,  asked  him  to  oblige  them  by  relat- 
ing some  incident  in  his  life  that  had  never  been  in 
print.  He  complied  by  saying,  "  The  first  article  of 
mine  that  ever  saw  the  light  was  a  little  poem  of 
four  stanzas,  entitled,  'James's  Tree.'  It  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Youth's  Companion,  a  publication  still 
prosperous.  I  was  then  seventeen  years  old,  and 
that  was  forty-four  years  ago.  I  took  the  jn-inted 
copy  containing  it  from  the  Post-office,  peeped 
within,  and  then  walked  home  on  air.  I  shall  prob- 
ably never  be  so  absorbingly  happy  as  I  was  then. 
Earth  has  nothing  like  it — earth  never  had  any- 
thing like  it — for  me.  I  have  seen  my  work  in  type 
since  then,  till  I  have  tired  of  the  sight  of  it,  but 
I  can  never  forget  the  great  joy  of  that  occasion. 
The  poem  was  signed  'J.  G.  H.,  Aug.  18,  1837.'" 

While  he  was  pursuing  his  high-school  course  a 
shadow  rested  on  his  life  and  prospects,  in  the  shape 
of  delicate  health,  but  he  worked  on  resolved  to  do 
till  he  did  die,  at  all  events.  The  causes  were  partly 
mental  and  partly  physical.  The  transition  from  a 
life  of  activity  to  the  sedentary  one  of  the  student, 
was  what  the  doctors  said  was  the  matter,  and  the 


CHOICE   OF   A   PROFESSION  15 

stirrings  of  the  ambition  that  was  to  carry  him 
through  long  years  of  struggle  were  making  them- 
selves felt.  Moreover,  a  false  idea  permeated  the 
whole  community,  that  a  man  who  was  "  merely 
studying"  did  not  need  much  to  eat.  The  "pale 
intellectual"  slave  of  the  midnight  lamp  was  the 
ideal  of  the  scholar,  and  much  of  the  fearful  dys- 
pepsia that  drove  Sylvester  Graham  to  invent  his 
kind  of  flour  and  bread,  in  this  same  Northampton, 
was  the  fruit  of  this  notion.  The  beef-and-mutton- 
eating  athlete  had  not  appeared  in  our  colleges. 
The  great  majority  of  students  did  not  eat  enough. 

Years  afterward,  when  success  had  surrounded 
him  with  every  luxury,  a  friend  who  knew  what 
constitutional  weaknesses  and  fastidious  hesitan- 
cies have  to  be  overcome  before  a  man  can  study 
medicine  to  any  purpose,  said  to  him,  "  It  always 
amuses  me  to  think  of  your  having  ever  under- 
taken to  be  a  doctor,  it  is  so  incongruous  ;  with 
your  instinctive  shrinking  from  the  sight  of  pain 
and  deformity,  the  whole  business  must  have  been 
distasteful  to  you."  "It  was,"  said  he,  "but  you 
forget  what  a  different  world  we  live  in  to-day  ;  now 
there  are  a  hundred  avenues  opened  where  there 
was  one  then,  and  I  was  determined  to  be  an  edu- 
cated gentleman,  and  for  that  you  had  to  take  one 
of  three  paths  :  I  could  be  a  minister,  but  that  re- 
quired a  college  course  which  my  poverty  utterly 


16  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

forbade.  I  should  have  been  middle-aged  before  I 
could  possibly  have  achieved  it.  I  felt  no  drawing 
toward  the  law,  the  more  I  knew  of  it  the  less  I 
liked  it ;  but  medicine — that  could  be  attained  with 
a  far  less  outlay  of  money  and  of  time,  and  the  suc- 
cessful physician  presented  a  very  attractive  figure 
among  the  magnates  of  a  New  England  town." 

His  health  had  mended  with  his  growth,  and  the 
delicate  adolescent  had  become  a  fairly  strong  man. 
The  comparatively  small  sum  that  would  be  required 
for  a  medical  education,  must  be  in  some  way  earned, 
so  he  acquired  a  hand-writing  singularly  delicate, 
clear,  uniform,  and  attractive  ;  page  after  page  would 
not  show  the  trace  of  a  nervous  tremor,  and  an  old 
foreman  in  the  Springfield  Republican  printing-office 
testified,  that  even  under  the  insatiate,  all-devouring 
demand  of  a  daily  newspaper  for  "  copy,"  it  still  re- 
mained "as  plain  as  print."  At  that  date — 1838 — 
the  metallic  pen  had  not  been  invented,  and  the 
art  of  making  pens  from  the  native  goose-quill  was 
an  accomplishment  to  be  learned  by  everybody  with 
any  pretensions  to  education  ;  so  young  Holland 
started  out  as  a  writing-master,  and  instructed  large 
classes  in  Northampton  and  the  adjacent  towns,  even 
going  over  the  border  into  Vermont.  He  had  the 
good  fortune  to  inspire  great  enthusiasm  in  all  his 
classes,  putting  all  the  zeal  and  force  there  was  in 
him  into  the  work  of  the  hour,  and  as  he  passed 


FIRST   WRITINGS  17 

from  place  to  place,  boarding  often  by  way  of  com- 
pensation for  lessons  in  some  farmer's  family,  he 
was  learning  the  traits  and  needs,  the  trials  and  dif- 
ficulties, of  those  "common  people,"  who  so  eagerly 
drank  in  instruction  and  help  from  his  writings, 
after  he  had  finally  found  his  place  and  work  in  life. 

But,  though  struggling  against  poverty,  his  life  was 
far  from  being  a  joyless  grind.  His  sensitive  musical 
ear,  and  his  fine  tenor  voice,  always  made  him  welcome 
in  the  local  singing  schools,  and  his  leisure  moments 
were  quite  sure  to  fill  themselves  with  the  writing  of 
verses  ;  these  he  often  contributed  to  the  Hampshire 
Gazette.  Some  of  them  are  still  extant,  and  though 
tender  and  refined,  they  are  evidently  the  productions 
of  an  unlearned,  untravelled,  homebred  country  boy. 

When  twenty-one,  he  at  last  began  to  realize  his 
dream  of  a  professional  education,  by  commencing 
the  study  of  medicine  in  the  office  of  Drs.  Barrett 
and  Thompson,  where  he  applied  himself  with  un- 
remitting industry  to  the  acquisition  of  the  necessary 
knowledge,  and,  after  he  had  attained  eminence  in 
another  field,  a  drawing  of  the  entire  human  arterial 
system  that  he  had  made  on  the  wall  of  the  office  from 
memor}%  was  pointed  out  as  a  proof  of  his  ability. 

To  obtain  the  degree   of  M.D.  required,  at  that 

time,  that  a  man  should  read  medicine  under  some 

reputable  "preceptor"  two  years,  but  that  time  must 

include  two  terms  of  lectures  of  three  months  each, 

2 


18  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

in  some  regularly  authorized  medical  school.  The 
Berkshire  Medical  College  in  Pittsfield,  under  the 
energetic  presidency  of  Dr.  H.  H.  Childs,  was  a 
justly  famous  school,  and  Dr.  Holland  took  his  de- 
gree from  it,  November  3,  1843. 

The  annual  irruption  of  the  students  and  pro- 
fessors— many  of  them  eminent  instructors  in  other 
schools — was  of  course  a  very  enlivening  event  in  a 
quiet  inland  town  of  five  thousand  people.  A  Young 
Ladies'  School,  whose  principal  was  a  progressive 
man,  and  whose  quick  ear  had  caught  the  first  sounds 
of  the  demand  for  the  "  higher  education  of  women," 
had  arranged  that  the  most  advanced  pupils  should 
attend  the  chemical  lectures  then  being  given  in  the 
college  by  Professor  Dewey.  Of  course,  the  girls 
were  full  of  excitement  at  the  prospect,  and  betrayed 
their  consciousness  in  the  matter  by  all  agreeing  to 
wear  thick  veils  made  of  a  very  obscuring  tissue 
called  "barege,"  which  were  to  be  kept  over  the  feat- 
ures during  the  lectures,  and  there  was  a  general 
agreement  to  "  cut "  the  students  wherever  found. 

The  Pittsfield  Sun  soon  printed 

"Stanzas  to  Bather  Distant  Friends" 
beginning  thus : 

"  Stay,  gentle  maidens — why  so  shy  ? 

I'm  sure  you  need  not  fear  us  ; 
Why  draw  the  veil,  avert  the  eye, 
Whenever  you  come  near  us  ? 


VERSES   AT   SCHOOL  19 

Why  should  you  deem  it  so  unwise, 

Improper,  and  imprudent, 
To  turn  a  pair  of  handsome  eyes 

Upon  a  handsome  student  ?  " 

The  verses  were  signed,  "Nothing  but  a  Student," 
the  quotation  marks  showing  them  to  be  the  echo  of 
a  contemptuous  expression.  Naturally,  curiosity 
was  on  tiptoe  to  discover  the  author,  but  the  incog- 
nito was  not  penetrated  for  a  long  time.  At  that  age 
of  the  world  the  American  chaperone  had  not  made 
her  appearance,  certainly  not  in  the  rural  regions, 
yet  none  but  students  carefully  introduced  could 
gain  admission  to  the  aristocratic  households  of  the 
place ;  but  judging  from  the  large  number  of  medical 
men  who  obtained  their  mates  in  the  town,  we  con- 
clude that  many  students  provided  themselves  with 
unimpeachable  credentials.  The  line  of  exclusive- 
ness  piqued  a  proud-spirited  young  fellow,  in  whose 
hitherto  rustic  surroundings  he  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  say  to  himself,  no  matter  whom  he  met, 
"I'm  as  good  as  you  are,  and  if  I  know  myself, 
possibly  better."  The  first  set  of  verses  called  out 
a  reply  from  some  unknown  hand,  and  he  rejoined 
in  a  dozen  verses,  in  which  he  rudely  applied  the 
argument um  ad  feminam,  thus  : 

"We  cannot  '  cuf  a  dash,  perhaps, 
As  some  rich  loafers  do, 


20  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

But  does  that  prove  we  studious  chaps 

Should  all  be  cut  hy  you? 
No  doubt  you  think  us  all  unfit 

To  act  the  tender  part ; 
You're  wrong,  we  all  know  how  to  treat 

Affections  of  the  heart.'' 

In  the  thesis  then  required  from  a  student  before 
he  could  be  graduated,  he  took  for  his  theme  the 
comparatively  unmedical  theme,  "  The  Theory  of 
Sensation  ;  "  and,  in  his  neat  and  delicate  chirogra- 
phy,  it  still  exists  among  the  archives  of  the  now 
defunct  Berkshire  Medical  College.  Of  course  he 
was  obliged  to  practise  the  greatest  economy,  and 
betook  board  with  such  an  exceedingly  thrifty  house- 
wife, that  one  of  his  principal  associations  with  the 
time  was  that  of  being  always  hungry,  and  of  having 
imbibed  a  large  amount  of  the  weakest  coffee  ever 
distilled. 

The  coveted  diploma  once  secured  he  returned  to 
Northampton,  and  here  he  found  the  social  recogni- 
tion that  he  craved,  and  during  the  winter,  at  a 
party  given  by  Editor  Hawley,  of  the  Gazette,  he  first 
saw  the  lady  who  afterward  became  his  wife  ;  and 
though  not  then  introduced  to  her,  she  had  made  a 
lasting  impression,  as  events  finally  proved.  In 
some  way  he  had  acquired  quite  an  acquaintance  in 
Springfield,  which  was  then  just  beginning  to  feel 
the  impulse  imparted  by  its  first  railroad,  travel  on 


HIS    PROFESSION    DISTASTEFUL  21 

the  line  which  extends  from  Boston  to  Albany  had 
been  opened  in  1S1-2.  In  the  spring  of  1S44  he  went 
there  to  look  over  the  ground,  with  a  view  to  estab- 
lishing himself  in  practice,  and  accidentally  met  on 
State  Street  Dr.  Charles  Bailey,  a  classmate,  who 
had  come  thither  from  the  eastern  part  of  the  State 
on  a  similar  errand,  and  then  and  there  they  de- 
cided upon  and  fixed  the  terms  of  a  partnership. 
Dr.  Bailey  could  command  a  little  money,  and  it  was 
agreed  that  Dr.  Holland's  "  acquaintance  "  should 
be  considered  equivalent  to  the  other's  money,  and 
they  rented  an  office  in  Main  Street.  It  is  a  hard 
task  for  an  enthusiastic  devotee  of  the  science  to 
build  up  a  medical  practice,  and  certainly  the 
thoughts  of  one  of  these  partners  were  not  absorbed 
by  his  business,  as  one  incident  will  show.  The 
teacher  of  a  young  ladies'  boarding-school  had  seen 
Dr.  Holland,  been  favorably  impressed,  and  decided 
to  employ  him.  Two  of  her  pupils  were  attacked 
with  scarlatina,  and  she  sent  for  him.  But  what  did 
he  do  with  the  grand  opening?  The  call  came 
when  he  was  at  work  on  a  poem  that  he  called  "  The 
Fays  of  the  Fountain,"  and  he  said,  ';  You  go,  Bai- 
ley ;  make  some  excuse ;  tell  'em  I  can't  come." 
The  want  of  professional  enthusiasm  that  could 
coolly  miss  such  an  opportunity,  carried  its  doom 
within  itself,  and  at  the  end  of  two  and  a  half  years 
the  partnership  was  dissolved  by  mutual  consent. 


22  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

Still,  during  the  time  lie  had  answered  one  urgent 
call  that  had  an  important  consequence  in  his  after- 
life. An  epidemic  of  malignant  erysipelas  broke 
out  in  the  town  of  Norwich.  Dr.  Brooks,  a  class- 
mate of  Dr.  Holland,  had  settled  there,  and  being 
himself  attacked,  in  the  emergency  sent  to  him  to 
come  to  the  rescue  of  the  smitten  town.  Antiseptic 
measures  had  not  been  heard  of  then,  and,  as  this 
outbreak  had  shown  itself  to  be  very  "  catching,"  it 
was  thought  a  great  risk  for  Dr.  Holland  to  go  ;  but 
he  listened  to  the  call  of  humanity  as  well  as  profes- 
sional duty,  and  remained  till  the  trouble  was  ex- 
tirpated. He  had  made  a  steadfast  friend  of  Dr. 
Brooks,  who  was  able  to  lend  him  assistance  at  an 
important  crisis  in  his  own  career,  and  remained 
ever  a  sincerely  attached  admirer  and  friend. 

Before  his  medical  partnership  had  ended,  his  ir- 
repressible bent  toward  literary  work  had  shown 
itself  in  the  publication  of  The  Bay  State  Weekly 
Courier,  whose  brief  history  is  given  in  Dr.  Hol- 
land's own  words  in  his  "  History  of  Western  Massa- 
chusetts :  "  "  On  the  1st  of  January,  1847,  a  literary 
newspaper  was  commenced  by  J.  G.  Holland,  a 
physician,  as  a  refuge  from  uncongenial  pills,  and  a 
still  more  uncongenial  lack  of  opportunity  for  dis- 
pensing them.  At  the  end  of  about  three  months 
he  relinquished  the  proprietorship  of  the  paper  to 
Horace  S.  Taylor,  its  printer,  he  still  remaining  its 


editor.  At  the  end  of  about  six  months  the  paper 
was  discontinued  for  lack  of  support.  The  pub- 
lication was  nominally  simultaneous  in  Springfield 
and  Cabotville.  The  list  was  sold  to  the  Repub- 
lican" 


CHAPTER  III. 

Marriage  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Chapin — Partnership  with  Dr. 
Charles  Robinson — Abandons  Medicine — A  Teacher  in 
Richmond— Superintendent  of  Schools  in  Vicksburg — 
Begins  his  Xewspaper  Career — The  "Springfield  Re- 
publican " — The  History  of  Western  Massachusetts. 

But  in  1845  Dr.  Holland  had  taken  another  step 
that  had  a  controlling  and  beneficent  influence  on 
all  his  future  life,  by  doing  what  the  Rev.  Robert 
Colly er  calls  "  the  best  day's  work  that  a  man  ever 
does  for  himself — that  in  which  he  takes  a  wife  and 
establishes  a  home  " — by  marrying  Miss  Elizabeth 
Chapin,  of  Springfield,  and  any  account  of  his  re- 
markable career  which  leaves  her  out  is  most  partial 
and  incomplete.  Her  strong  practical  judgment 
was  an  offset  to  his  more  imaginative  temperament, 
and,  though  making  no  literary  pretensions  herself, 
she  was  a  remarkably  sympathetic  and  correct  judge 
of  what  it  is  that  appeals  to,  and  influences,  and  is 
valued  by  that  great  company  of  "the  plain  peo- 
ple," as  Abraham  Lincoln  called  them,  whom  event- 
ually her  husband  was  to  address  to  such  pur- 
pose.    But  it  was  the  stern  Puritan  industry  and 


U.   oMoc/awc/ 


MRS.    HOLLAND  25 

frugality  of  the  woman,  who  at  all  hazards — no  mat- 
ter what  the  sacrifice — would  keep  the  outgo  within 
the  income,  that  created  the  serene  atmosphere  of 
peace  and  hope  about  him,  into  which  no  spectre 
of  debt  and  consequent  uneasiness  could  intrude  to 
disturb  the  fruitful  current  of  his  thought.  A  typ- 
ical womanly  woman,  she  never  for  one  moment 
remitted  her  wiHy  pride  in  the  gentlemanly  appear- 
ance of  her  eminently  handsome  husband.  When  a 
new  overcoat  was  essential  to  his  comfort  and  his 
looks,  the  cloth  was  bought  by  her,  the  garment  cut 
by  a  stylish  tailor,  but  the  sewing  was  done  at 
home  by  a  peripatetic  tailoress,  and  an  excellent 
effect  achieved  at  less  than  half  the  cost  that  most 
men  would  have  paid.  Their  life-story  holds  a 
moral  for  these  days  of  late  marriages,  in  which  the 
"sweet"  home,  whose  most  precious  perfume  is  dis- 
tilled from  the  mutual  sacrifices  of  both  husband 
and  wife,  is  far  rarer  than  it  used  to  be.  A  min- 
iature of  Mrs.  Holland  made  at  this  time,  shows 
her  with  a  fair  complexiou,  a  rosy  bloom,  a  pair  of 
remarkably  frank  and  fearless  bluish-gray  eyes,  and 
a  wealth  of  soft  brown  hair.  She  was  of  medium 
height,  but  looked  fairly  petite  beside  the  tall  and 
stalwart  figure  of  her  husband.  His  dark-olive 
complexion  and  black  eyes  and  hair  gave  him  a 
Spanish  look,  but  when  illuminated  in  talking  or  in 
lecturing,  his  face  had  a   remarkable  brilliancy  of 


26  JOSIAH    GILBERT    HOLLA X J) 

expression,  and  the  two  presented  that  happy  con- 
trast which  some  philosophers  deem  essential  to 
perfect  mutual  admiration  in  husband  and  wife. 

After  his  first  partnership  had  come  to  nought, 
he  formed  another  with  Dr.  Charles  Robinson — a 
Belchertown  boy  and  a  Pittsfield  graduate,  wTho 
afterward  went  to  Kansas  aud  was  its  governor, 
when  in  fact  it  was  "bleeding  Kansas,"  and  who  still 
survives  in  an  honored  old  age.  They  undertook 
to  establish  a  hospital  for  women,  a  desperate  ex- 
periment— quite  in  advance  of  the  time — for  the 
day  of  the  specialist  and  the  sanitarium  was  only 
beginning  to  dawn.  Six  months  served  to  com- 
plete this  experiment,  and  convince  Dr.  Holland 
that  the  tree  of  medicine  bore  no  fruit  for  his 
plucking.  He  was  gaining  a  world  of  experience 
and  discipline,  but  of  cash — nil.  At  that  date,  the 
South  drew  largely  on  the  North  for  its  school- 
masters, and  he  accepted  a  position  as  teacher  in 
a  private  school  in  Richmond,  Va.,  and  very  soon 
afterward — through  the  good  offices  of  a  friend — 
he  was  elected  to  the  superintendence-  of  the  Public 
Schools  of  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  and  Mrs.  Holland,  who 
had  not  gone  with  him  to  Richmond,  accompanied 
him  to  the  more  distant  field.  A  state  of  chaos 
best  describes  the  condition  of  the  schools  there  at 
that  time.  He  at  once  set  about  applying  the  ideas 
he  had  acquired  in  Massachusetts,   whose   educa- 


WORK    AT   VICKSBURG  27 

tional  system  at  that  time  rejoiced  in  the  inspira- 
tion of  Horace  Mann.  He  graded  the  schools, 
and  in  spite  of  many  prognostications  to  the  con- 
trary, made  a  brilliant  success  by  doing  with 
his  might  the  work  his  hand  found  to  do.  Mrs. 
Holland  had  married  him  for  "richer  or  poorer," 
and  at  this  juncture  it  was  decidedly  poorer,  and 
she  taught  the  primary  department,  earning  $10 
per  week — just  enough  to  pay  their  board.  The 
year  1848  was  long  remembered  as  a  golden  year  in 
the  history  of  the  Yicksburg  schools.  In  the  vaca- 
tion he  accepted  an  invitation  to  visit  on  one  of  the 
largest  plantations  in  Louisiana,  and  of  course  the 
irrepressible  pen  had  to  come  into  play.  He  wrote 
"  Sketches  of  Plantation  Life  "  and  sent  them  to  the 
Springfield  Republican,  and  undoubtedly  they  led 
up  to  his  finally  reaching  his  right  place  in  life.  At 
the  same  time  he  sent  poems  to  the  Home  Journal 
and  the  Knickerbocker  Magazine. 

"When  he  had  been  in  Vicksburg  a  year  and  three 
months,  letters  came  saying  that  Mrs.  Holland's 
widowed  mother  was  probably  near  death,  and  her 
own  health  was  such  as  made  it  expedient  that  the 
hard  journey,  much  of  it  in  stage-coach  and  over 
the  Allegheny  Mountains,  should  not  be  delayed. 
The  superintendency  was  resigned,  and  they  reached 
Springfield  two  weeks  before  Mrs.  Chapin's  death. 
A  son  was  born  to  them  in  the  following  August. 


28  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

The  story  has  often  been  told  that  the  second 
"Editor  Bowles,"  known  the  world  over  as  "Sam 
Bowles,"  stood  in  the  office  door  as  Dr.  Holland 
drove  up  the  street,  and  seeing  him,  said  "That  is 
the  man  I  want,"  while  the  doctor,  pointing  to  the 
building,  said  "That  is  the  place  I  want."  And  as 
they  thus  thought  it  eventually  was,  for  the  assis- 
tant editor,  Samuel  H.  Davis,  of  Westfield,  had 
been  buried  shortly  before,  and  the  "place"  and  the 
"  man  "  were  not  long  in  finding  each  other,  and  in 
two  weeks'  time  Dr.  Holland  was  made  assistant 
editor.  At  last  the  man  had  found  his  niche,  and 
all  unconsciously  to  himself,  the  lay  preacher  had 
taken  possession  of  his  pulpit. 

He  was  now  thirty,  and  it  had  taken  nine  years 
of  changes  and  experiments  for  him  to  find,  as  Mr. 
Gladden  happily  says,  "  the  tool  that  he  had  been 
looking  for,  with  which  to  carve  out  fame  and  fort- 
une ;  and  behold,  it  was  a  pen  !  "  His  salary  for  the 
first  year  was  $40  per  month — $480  ;  the  second 
year  $700,  and  during  the  third  he  was  able  to  buy 
a  quarter  interest  in  the  paper  for  $3,500,  the  Dr. 
Brooks,  whose  practice  in  Norwich  Dr.  Holland  had 
cared  for  during  the  erysipelas  epidemic,  making 
him  a  small  loan,  which  was  not  only  an  offering  of 
gratitude,  but  was  the  proof  of  an  abiding  friend- 
ship. 

Mr.   Bowles  was  onlv   twenty-five   at   this  time, 


29 

but  all  the  world  knows  what  a  marvel  of  journal- 
ism he  produced  in  a  quiet  inland  town,  creating 
a  paper  that  had  a  national  reputation.  One  of 
the  great  elements  of  its  success  was  his  unerring 
sagacity  in  the  choice  of  helpers.  If  he  had  an 
unequalled  "nose  for  news,"  he  also  had  a  wonder- 
ful eye  for  men,  as  well  as  the  quick  instinctive 
feeling  of  what  the  public  wants,  and  will  pay  for, 
and  will  read.  His  discriminating  glance  detected 
among  the  graduates  emerging  from  our  New  Eng- 
land colleges  each  year,  men  who  now  fill  high 
positions  in  the  newspaper  world,  men  who  could 
really  assist  him  ;  and  a  long  catalogue  of  these 
might  be  made,  who  took  part  of  their  schooling 
in  the  Republican  office.  Mr.  Clarke  W.  Bryan  was 
then  editor  of  the  Berkshire  Courier,  at  Great  Bar- 
rington,  and  he  displayed  so  great  executive  ability 
in  the  collection  of  election  returns  for  the  paper, 
that  it  was  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for 
him  to  be  invited  to  come  in  ;  the  more,  as  in  1853 
Mr.  Bowles's  eyesight  became  seriously  affected,  and 
in  this  year  a  further  division  of  labor  and  refine- 
ment of  organization  placed  the  printing  and  pub- 
lication department  under  his  complete  supervision. 
Everybody  at  once  perceived  that  a  remarkable  trio 
of  young  men,  with  life  and  hope  and  their  careers 
before  them,  had  planted  themselves  in  the  heart 
of  New  England,   and  the  evolution  of  the  news- 


BO  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

paper  in  their  hands,  to  a  position  of  commanding 
influence — the  story  of  which  was  told  in  its  issue 
of  December  8,  1888,  forms  a  unique  recital  in  the 
annals  of  country  journalism.  Dr.  Holland,  sit- 
ting in  the  editorial  room — a  very  modest  apart- 
ment— pen  in  hand,  ready  to  write  up  notices  of  any 
size  and  style,  from  the  establishment  of  a  new  pea- 
nut stand  to  the  building  of  a  Union  railway  station, 
or  a  review  of  the  most  ambitious  book  of  the  day, 
as  well  as  to  pronounce  rhadamawthine  judgments 
on  the  productions  of  spring  poets  and  "  constant 
readers  ; "  Mr.  Bowles,  with  one  hand  on  the  public 
pulse,  detecting  the  slightest  changes  in  the  cur- 
rents of  thought  and  feeling,  and  in  the  other  a 
telescope  with  which  he  swept  the  horizon,  for  the 
faintest  glimpse  of  any  new  event — the  tiniest  glim- 
mer of  what  would  make  even  a  line  of  Horace 
Greeley's  "mighty  interesting  reading;"  and  the 
energetic  Bryan,  to  see  all  printed,  given  out  to 
newsboys  or  mailed  on  time,  and  that  too  every 
twenty-four  hours,  not  to  name  the  Weekly.  Mr. 
Bowles  once  said  :  "  It's  the  most  wearing  work  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  :  you  get  the  paper  off,  you 
catch  one  breath,  and  then  it's,  What's  going  in  to- 
morrow ?  " 

The  vital  need  of  every  born  writer  is  a  public — 
that  nebulous  but  always  existent  "  party  of  the 
other  part,"  that  has  been  addressed  in  a  thousand 


CHARACTERISTICS    AS    EDITOR  31 

timid  prefaces  as  "  the  gentle  reader."  It  is  his 
natural  environment,  that  reacts  ou  him  as  the  air 
does  on  the  lungs ;  and  Emerson  never  showed 
more  perfectly  his  profound  insight  than  when  he 
doubted  the  vocation  of  some  man  whose  literary 
gifts  had  been  referred  to  him  for  judgment,  say- 
ing, "  I  doubted  his  genius  when  I  saw  that  he 
didn't  care  to  publish." 

In  the  interesting  chronicle  of  the  Republican, 
made  up  when  it  moved  into  its  present  building,  it 
is  said  :  ':  The  advent  of  Dr.  Holland  as  an  editorial 
writer  marks  a  distinct  period  in  the  importance 
given  to  social,  humanitarian,  and  moral  questions. 
His  experience  in  a  weekly  paper  devoted  exclu- 
sively to  literature  did  not  dampen  his  literary 
ardor,  and  the  experiment  which  was  a  failure  in  a 
business  point  of  view  was  valuable  to  him,  when  he 
came  to  have  both  a  proprietor's  and  an  editor's 
interest  in  a  daily  paper.  His  style  of  composition 
had  quality.  It  was  both  chaste  and  vigorous,  and 
he  readily  acquired  the  art  of  popularizing  a  homily, 
by  taking  a  text  from  the  day's  doings.  The  Repub- 
lican began  to  commit  itself  upon  social  questions — 
the  duties  of  employers  and  laborers,  Sunday  ob- 
servance, and  the  like." 

The  idea  that  the  newspaper  must  not  only  carry 
all  of  the  latest  news,  but  that  it  might  bring,  with 
great  advantage  to  itself,  far  more  to  the  home  aud 


32  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

fireside  —  entertainment,  instruction,  amusement — 
had  then  begun  to  be  diffused  in  the  land  ;  such 
mammoth  illustrated  sheets  as  the  Brother  Jonathan 
had  put  in  an  appearance  ;  and  the  city  dailies  were 
finding  it  worth  their  while  to  take  pains  in  filling 
in  odd  spaces  with  really  interesting  matter.  Of 
course,  a  man  so  sensitive  to  the  spirit  of  the  time 
as  Mr.  Bowles  was  not  long  in  feeling  this  influence, 
nor  slow  in  trying  to  meet  the  demand. 

The  circulation  of  the  paper  at  this  time  was  three 
thousand  seven  hundred  for  the  daily  edition,  two- 
thirds  of  which  was  to  out-of-town  subscribers,  and 
about  four  thousand  for  the  weekly. 

To  make  the  paper  interesting,  Dr.  Holland  entered 
upon  the  work  of  studying  and  writing  the  history 
of  Western  Massachusetts,  including  the  most  com- 
plete account  possible  of  the  origin,  progress,  and 
condition  of  the  one  hundred  towns  that  make  up 
the  four  western  counties  of  the  State.  Experi- 
enced historians  thought  it  an  undertaking  of 
much  audacity,  for  it  was  a  work  involving  the 
discovering  and  deciphering  no  end  of  musty  old 
documents,  an  immense  correspondence,  and  a  care- 
ful sifting  of  sometimes  involved  and  conflicting 
accounts.  Any  error  of  statement  wras  sure  to  be 
pounced  upon  by  some  "oldest  inhabitant,"  but  all 
this  careful  and  accurate  collating,  comparing,  and 
condensing  was  a  splendid  discipline  for  a  natural 


FIRST   LITERARY    SUCCESS  33 

verse  -  writer.  It  appeared  serially  in  the  Weekly 
Republican,  but  it  was  so  much  esteemed  and 
prized,  that  he  finally  brought  it  out  in  two  sizable 
volumes,  that  remain  the  leading  authority  on  the 
period  of  which  they  treat,  save  for  a  few  very  mi- 
nutely-written-out  histories,  like  Judd's,  of  Hadley, 
or  J.  E.  A.  Smith's,  of  Pittsfield.  The  production  of 
a  serious  and  important  book,  forty  years  ago,  was 
quite  a  different  affair  from  what  it  is  now,  in  the 
degree  of  personal  distinction  it  conferred  on  its 
author.  Dr.  Holland  was  made  a  member  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  but  the  work 
brought  him  a  much  more  precious  reward — it  ad- 
mitted him  to  the  charmed  circle  of  the  "New  Eng- 
land Brahmins,"  and  he  began  to  be  recognized  as 
that  "  educated  gentleman "  he  had  so  earnestly 
determined  to  be  when  yet  a  school-boy.  While 
accomplishing  this,  he  formed  the  fixed  habit  of 
systematic  application  to  his  daily  task  ;  he  waited 
for  no  moods,  but  worked  right  on,  and  as  one 
who  comprehended  his  achievements  very  truly  says, 
"  From  the  substantial  success  he  achieved  we  may 
learn  another  lesson  in  life  than  any  directly  taught  in 
his  writings,  to  wit,  the  wonderful  results  of  method 
and  of  industry  in  multiplying  talent ;  in  distinction 
from  greater  and  higher  gifts  cultivated  spasmodi- 
cally. Talent  and  industry  achieve  in  the  end  that 
which  genius  and  idleness  allied  will  never  attain." 


34  JOSIAII    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

Before  entering  upon  an  account  of  the  specific 
field  where  he  achieved  his  greatest  successes,  viz., 
as  an  essential  preacher  of  those  things  that  make 
for  righteousness  in  personal  conduct — one  element 
of  his  power  in  these  days  of  excessive  linguistic 
"  education  "  should  be  noted — he  spoke  the  speech 
of  the  common  people,  and  when  a  plain  man  was 
reading  one  of  his  "Letters,"  or  "Talks,"  or  "Top- 
ics," all  the  "  contrariness "  of  his  soul  was  not 
stirred  up  by  running  across  a  Latin  or  French 
phrase  or  word,  humiliating  and  disgusting  him  at 
his  lack  of  "  advantages."  The  short,  forcible  Saxon 
words  of  our  tongue  form  the  staple  of  his  writing, 
he  made  no  drafts  on  the  sonorous  polysyllabic 
Latinity  of  it,  if  he  could  avoid  it.  In  his  Me- 
morial Address,  Mr.  George  S.  Merriam  said,  "He 
could  think  the  thoughts  and  speak  the  speech 
of  the  common  people.  He  represented  that  demo- 
cratic quality  in  literature  which  our  social  condi- 
tions demand,  and  are  only  beginning  to  get.  Take 
from  your  shelf  at  random  a  standard  author  other 
than  a  novelist,  and  read  a  page  to  the  first  man 
you  chance  to  meet.  Ten  to  one,  he  listens  with  a 
sort  of  uncomprehending  look  ;  the  voice  comes  to 
him  muffled,  as  of  someone  speaking  in  the  next 
room,  for  most  authors  write  out  of  a  mental  habit 
and  equipment  which  is  unfamiliar  to  the  common 
people  ;  they  use  a  literary  dialect — the  dialect  of  a 


HIS    AUDIENCE   THE   PLAIN   PEOPLE        35 

class,  as  much  as  is  the  dialect  of  science  or  theol- 
ogy. But  take  almost  any  book  of  Dr.  Holland, 
and  read  it  to  any  man  or  woman  of  common  intel- 
ligence :  the  eye  responds,  they  understand  what 
he  means  ;  they  agree  or  deny  ;  they  comprehend, 
they  are  moved,  influenced.  He  was  a  man  of  the 
people,  and  the  common  people  heard  him  gladly." 
However  much  the  devotees  of  high  literary  "cult- 
ure "  may  deplore  what  the  critics  are  pleased  to 
regard  as  his  deficiencies,  there  are  those  whose 
hearts  swell  with  gratitude  that  he  was  debarred 
by  iron  circumstance  from  acquiring  that  "  learn- 
ing," that  so  far  forth  would  have  unfitted  him  from 
ministering  to  the  intellectual  needs  of  the  literal 
millions  wrho  read  his  productions,  many  of  whom 
remember  him  for  "  some  high  impulse  given  when 
perhaps  the  will  was  faltering,  some  clear  light 
shed  when  the  path  was  dark."  However  facile  the 
writer,  he  too  comes  under  the  unalterable  law 
that  "practice  makes  perfect  ;"  no  better  proof  is 
needed  than  to  read  his  first  set  of  letters  to  young 
people,  and  compare  them  with  the  compactness 
and  finish,  and  rhythm  of  his  latest  "  Topics  of  the 
Time  "  in  Scribner's  Monthly. 

Dr.  Be  van  said  of  him,  "  He  wielded  a  pen  of  con- 
summate skill.  I  doubt  whether  better  English  has 
issued  from  the  contemporary  press  of  the  last  ten 
years  than  may  be  read  in  his  '  Topics  of  the  Time.' " 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Apostle  to  the  New  Englanders  takes  up  his  Mission — 
The  "Timothy  Titcomb  "  Letters— Publishes  his  First 
Book— "Gold  Foil." 

After  the  completion  of  the  historical  series,  Dr. 
Holland  wrote  the  satirical  letters  of  "Max  Manner- 
ing  to  his  Sister  in  the  Country,"  and  remaining 
incognito,  aroused  great  interest  in  them.  Mr. 
Bowles  never  showed  his  instinctive  knowledge  of 
what  the  public  was  hungering  for  more  completely 
than  when  he  suggested  that  a  series  of  letters  of 
moral  advice  would  "take;"  and  certainly  his  edi- 
tor, who  whatever  else  was  in  a  man,  saw  him  first 
and  principally  as  a  moral  agent  whose  watchword 
should  be  duty,  and  whose  allegiance  should  be 
given  to  the  One  great  invisible  Leader,  was  the 
man  to  give  the  advice.  To  impart  the  desired  air 
of  venerability  he  chose  the  pseudonym  of  "  Timo- 
thy Titcomb."  They  were  written  for  the  plain 
work-a-day  people  who  plough,  and  sow,  and  reap, 
who  spin  and  weave,  and  forge,  and  run  our  engines, 
and  perform  the  myriad  indispensable  household 
tasks  that  are  monotonous  and  commonplace,  and 


THE  "titcomb"  letters  37 

often  in  such  straitened  circumstances,  or  accom- 
panied by  such  trials  and  temptations,  as  to  be  well- 
nigh  unbearable. 

He  addressed  them  on  the  commonest  kinds  of 
omissions  and  neglects,  and  as  to  phases  of  their 
lives  ;  had  he  not  seen  them  all,  in  the  wanderings, 
and  vicissitudes,  and  deprivations  of  his  own? 
'When  a  plain  farmer's  wife  would  hurry  her  bread 
into  the  oven,  and  seize  her  Saturday's  paper  and 
tear  off  the  wrapper,  saying,  "I  must  see  what 
1  Timothy  Titcomb '  says  this  week,"  before  she 
washed  her  hands  or  looked  at  the  marriages  and 
deaths,  we  may  believe  that  he  spoke  to  a  real  want, 
and  addressed  an  audience  that  was  waiting  to  be 
taught. 

It  is  impossible  to  reproduce  the  moral  and  men- 
tal attitude  of  our  country  at  that  time  ;  we  look 
back  to  it  across  the  mighty  chasm  of  a  great  civil 
war  which  revolutionized  modes  of  thought  and 
methods  of  living  ;  which  did  much  to  dissipate  the 
dreamy  speculations  of  men  who  fancied  themselves 
thinkers  and  leaders  ;  it  set  up  new  standards  in 
almost  every  department  of  life,  but  neither  then 
nor  now,  was  there  ever  a  time  when  the  true  child 
of  New  England  was  indifferent  to  the  questions 
What  is  Truth  ?  and  What  ought  I  to  do  ?  Dr.  Hol- 
land aimed  to  answer  these  questions  for  him.  The 
knot  of  men  in  Boston  who  called  themselves  trans- 


38  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

cendentalists,  and  whose  ideas  were  promulgated  in 
the  Dial,  and  whose  attempts  to  improve  the  actual 
conditioDS  of  life  took  practical  shape  in  Brook 
Farm,  and  who  really  loosened  some  of  the  founda- 
tion-stones of  old  outworn  beliefs,  were  giving 
themselves  to  speculation  on  "The  "Whiclmess  of 
the  When,  and  the  Whatness  of  the  Why,"  when  Dr. 
Holland  was  telling  Yankee  farmers  that  by  a  little 
more  kindly  forethought  in  "providing"  they  might 
save  much  suffering,  and  that  hundreds  of  their 
wives  died,  annually,  from  green  wood  alone  ! 
And  while  one  of  this  sort  was  writing  : 

"I  rested  by  day  with  the  formless  ; 

I  talked  with  the  stars  of  the  night  : 
I  looked  with  the  eyes  of  the  viewless, 
And  found  in  the  darkness  the  light," 

he  was  telling  cold  and  stern  fathers  and  mothers 
how  they  were  ruining  the  lives  of  their  children  by 
imposing  their  own  iron  wills  on  the  young  lives 
committed  to  their  care,  and  never  allowing  them  to 
be  free  from  restraint. 

At  that  time  Mr.  Emerson,  after  showing  that  the 
history  of  the  world  had  crystallized  about  a  few 
heroes,  wrote  this  :  "Broader  and  deeper  we  must 
write  our  annals,  from  an  ethical  reformation,  from 
an  influx  of  the  ever  new,  ever  sanative  conscience 
— if  we  would  trulier  express  our  central  and  world- 


PUBLICATION    OF   THE    "LETTERS"         39 

related  nature,  instead  of  this  old  chronology  of 
selfishness  and  pride  to  which  we  have  too  long 
lent  our  eyes."  Those  men  undoubtedly  rendered 
literature,  their  country,  and  the  world  a  service, 
but  their  lights  shone  so  far  up  in  the  empyrean, 
that  only  the  dwellers  on  the  topmost  eminences  of 
learning  and  thought  could  really  benefit  by  them  ; 
they  did  not  send  their  rays  down  into  the  valleys, 
where  dwell  the  multitudes  of  mankind. 

The  "Letters"  were  in  three  series — to  young 
men,  to  young  women,  and  to  young  married  people 
— and  were  a  great  and  immediate  success,  and  their 
popularity  soon  began  to  tell  in  the  subscription 
list  of  the  paper.  These  were  over  and  above  the 
daily  editorial  work  which  was  carried  unremit- 
tingly forward.  Nothing  was  more  natural  than 
that  they  should  be  gathered  into  a  book  and  car- 
ried to  a  publisher.  Two  prominent  firms  "looked" 
at  them  and  declined,  and  another  declined  them 
without  looking.  Armed  with  a  letter  of  intro- 
duction from  George  Ripley,  Dr.  Holland  went  to 
the  late  Charles  Scribner  and  begged  the  privilege 
of  reading  three  of  the  letters.  Mr.  Scribner  turned 
the  key  of  his  private  office  and  bade  the  author 
proceed.  At  the  end  of  the  third  letter  he  said,  "I 
will  take  the  book."  A  most  sagacious  decision,  for 
at  the  time  of  Dr.  Holland's  death,  in  1881,  half  a 
million  of  copies  of  this  and  his  succeeding  works 


40  JOSIAII    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

had  been  sold,  and  their  popularity  continues  prac- 
tically unimpaired.  Mr.  Scribner  recognized  that 
there  are  different  strata  of  readers,  and  that  in  the 
evolution  of  a  man,  he  sometimes  belongs  to  one  and 
sometimes  to  another.  This  was  the  first  of  a  series 
of  fifteen  boohs,  that  followed  in  fifteen  years.  The 
pyramid  certainly  is  larger  at  its  base  than  at  its 
apex.  A  very  discriminating  editorial  in  the  Boston 
Traveller,  at  the  time  of  Dr.  Holland's  death,  dis- 
closes the  secret  of  his  power.  All  agree  that  he  was 
essentially  a  preacher,  that  he  felt  he  had  a  message, 
and  that  he  was  bound  to  deliver  it.  The  writer 
says:  "It  is  difficult  to  estimate  justly  the  real  ser- 
vices Dr.  Holland  has  rendered,  not  so  much  to  lit- 
erature, as  to  those  whom  Lincoln  called  the  'plain 
people.'  In  his  'Kathrina'  the  doctor  elaborates  a 
theory  of  how  teachers  stand  between  the  great  mas- 
ter minds  and  the  people,  to  break  the  bread,  to  serve 
as  interpreters."  Nothing  more  accurately  desig- 
nates Dr.  Holland's  place  in  literature-  "Books,  like 
friends,  have  their  special  messages  for  us  at  special 
epochs  of  life,  and  missing  these  once,  we  must  miss 
them  forever.  The  best  juvenile  literature  could  not 
entrance  us  if  we  first  met  it  after  we  had  outgrown 
its  quality  ;  nor  could  the  great  writers  of  earth  bear 
any  message  to  the  mind  too  undeveloped  to  re- 
ceive it.  The  'Letters,'  'Gold  Foil,'  etc.,  are  books 
peculiarly  fitted  to  aspiring  young  people,  in  sus- 


HIS    DIDACTICISM  41 

ceptible  stages  of  mental  development.  To  a 
thoughtful  boy  of  a  certain  age  they  would  be  what 
Emerson  would  come  to  be  to  him  five  years  later, 
and  there  is  no  gainsaying  the  good  they  have 
done."  We  are  apt,  in  this  electric  age  of  thought, 
to  turn  superciliously  from  what  we  denominate  the 
"  goody-goody  "  style  of  writing  ;  it  quickly  palls, 
and  still  the  constant  adherence  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  all  true  living  is  yet  a  thing  to  make 
all  conscious  life  better,  and  a  faith  for  whose  abid- 
ing firmness  we  should  be  thankful.  For  in  the 
crisis  hours  of  life  it  is  to  the  simple  primitive  vir- 
tues that  we  cling,  after  all.  It  is  impossible  for  the 
critic  of  to-day  rightly  to  judge  these  didactic  works 
of  Dr.  Holland,  unless  he  has  in  his  own  experience 
a  knowledge  of  what,  at  a  certain  far-away  epoch, 
they  were  to  himself.  "He  touched  commonplace 
lives  to  finer,  nobler,  issues."  A  farmer  in  one  of 
our  hill  towns  sought  the  sympathy  and  advice  of  his 
pastor,  as  his  married  life  had  not  proved  all  he  had 
hoped  for,  and  at  that  special  juncture  the  relations 
between  himself  and  wife  were  greatly  "strained," 
in  fact  he  was  contemplating  separation.  The  pastor 
wisely  declined  to  advise  in  a  case  where  it  was  plain 
that  both  parties  were  to  blame.  A  few  days  after  he 
was  driving  by  the  field  where  the  man  was  working. 
He  at  once  came  forward,  and  addressing  the  minis- 
ter, said,  "I've  thought  better  of  that  matter  I  was 


42  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

talking  to  you  about.  Did  you  read  Dr.  Holland  in 
Saturday's  paper?"  The  minister  replied  that  on 
Saturday  he  was  too  busy  with  his  sermon  for  any- 
thing else.  "Well,  Holland  was  talking  about  how 
husbands  and  wives  ought  to  treat  each  other,  and 
I  see  I've  been  somewhat  wrong  myself,  and  I've 
made  up  my  mind  to  stand  by  the  woman,  for  better 
or  for  worse,  till  death  do  us  part." 

The  success  of  these  "Letters"  was  a  great  and 
inspiring  recompense  to  a  man  who  had  worked 
hard  and  waited  patiently,  says  Mr.  Gladden,  and 
when,  a  year  later,  he  sent  out  "Gold  Foil,"  he 
talked  with  his  public  in  a  straightforward  but  de- 
voutly grateful  spirit,  as  follows:  "A  few  months 
ago  the  pen  that  traces  these  lines  commenced  a 
series  of  letters  to  the  young.  The  letters  accumu- 
lated and  grew  into  a  book  ;  and  this  book,  with 
honest  aims  and  modest  pretensions,  has  a  place  to- 
day in  many  thousand  homes,  while  it  has  been  read 
by  hundreds  and  thousands  of  men  and  women  in 
every  part  of  our  country.  More  and  better  than 
this,  it  has  become  an  inspiring,  moving,  and  direct- 
ing power  in  a  great  aggregate  of  young  life.  I  say 
this  with  that  kind  of  gladness  and  gratitude  which 
admits  of  little  pride.  I  say  it  because  it  has  been 
said  to  me — revealed  to  me  in  letters  brimming 
with  thankfulness  and  overflowing  with  friendliness ; 
expressed  to  me  in  silent  pressings  of  the  hand — 


QUALITY    OF   HI*   AMBITION  48 

pressings  so  full  of  meaning  that  I  involuntarily 
looked  at  my  palm  to  see  if  a  jewel  bad  not  been 
left  in  it ;  uttered  to  me  by  eyes  full  of  interest  and 
pleasure ;  told  me  in  plain  and  homely  words,  in  the 
presence  of  tears  that  came  unbidden.  .  .  to 
vouch  for  their  honesty.  To  say  that  all  this  makes 
me  happy  would  not  be  to  say  all  that  I  feel.  I  ac- 
count the  honor  of  occupying  a  pure  place  in  the 
popular  heart,  of  being  welcomed  in  God's  name 
into  the  affectionate  confidence  of  those  for  whom 
life  has  high  meanings  and  high  issues,  of  being  rec- 
ognized as  among  the  beneficent  forces  of  society 
— the  greatest  honor  to  be  worked  for  and  won 
under  the  stars."  This  was  the  sort  of  satisfaction 
that  some  author  "highly  praised  by  the  critics" 
had  missed,  when  he  said  to  Elizabeth  Stuart 
Phelps,  "I  would  crawl  on  my  hands  and  knees  till 
I  sank,  if  I  could  write  a  book  that  the  plain  people 
would  read  and  love." 


CHAPTEE  V. 

His  First  Novel,  and  tlie  Beginning  of  his  Lecturing  Career 
— "  Bittersweet,"  "  Miss  Gilbert's  Career,"  and  the  Civil 
War — Eulogy  on  Lincoln. 

Of  course  Dr.  Holland's  literary  quality  could  not 
fail  to  make  Lis  book-notices  and  short  editorial 
paragraphs  attractive,  and  he  had  the  sort  of 
thoroughness  that  does  whatever  work  is  in  hand  as 
well  as  it  possibly  can  be  done  ;  so  that  Mr.  Bowles's 
boundless  ability  to  gather  news  from  eveiy  corner 
of  the  land  and  every  walk  in  life,  and  Dr.  Holland's 
editor's  gift  in  dressing  it  in  terse  and  vivacious 
language,  produced  a  paper  that  people  of  differing 
political  ideas  would  grumblingly  buy,  Baying,  "I 
don't  take  any  stock  in  their  politics,  but  I  must 
have  their  paper." 

While  the  Titcomb  letters  had  been  making  their 
appearance  he  had  produced  and  printed  serially  a 
novel,  founded  on  early  events  in  the  history  of 
Massachusetts,  especially  exhibiting  the  witchcraft 
delusion  and  some  of  its  unhappy  consequences. 
Incidentally  it  shows  up  some  of  the  fallacies  that 
dominated  the  Puritans,  who  while  founding  a  col- 


I860 


45 

ony  whose  ostensible  corner-stone  was  freedom  to 
worship  God  according  to  ones  conscience,  were 
cruelly  intolerant  toward  religious  opinions  that  did 
not  exactly  square  with  their  own — a  state  of  things 
that  finally  drove  William  Pynchon,  one  of  the 
founders  of  Springfield,  and  a  noble  figure  of  a  man, 
back  to  England  to  die  after  having  given  the  flower 
of  his  days  to  the  settlement,  "  because  he  had  writ- 
ten a  book  in  which  he  had  given  utterance  to  some 
opinions  that  were  not  considered  orthodox  by  the 
authorities  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  though  strict  in 
the  discharge  of  his  magisterial,  social,  and  Christian 
duties."  That  sentence,  quoted  from  the  "History 
of  Western  Massachusetts,"  contains  the  key  to  the 
attitude  of  Dr.  Holland  on  doctrinal  opinion  and 
practical  piety,  and  it  was  given  him  to  discover 
that  the  New  Englander's  ability  to  take  upon  him- 
self the  direction  of  his  neighbor's  conscience  and 
belief,  had  not  altogether  departed  from  him  two 
hundred  years  later,  when  Dr.  Holland  himself  was 
charged  with  heresy. 

"Gold  Foil  "and  "Letters  to  the  Joneses"  suc- 
cessively ran  their  course  in  the  paper,  and  were 
duly  gathered  up  and  published  by  the  Scribners, 
yielding  a  very  comfortable  royalty  to  the  pocket  of 
their  author,  and  giving  the  distinction  that  comes 
to  but  few  writers  of  any  time — to  be  thought  of 
with  warm  personal  gratitude  for  some  soul-help 


46  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

given  when  needed,  some  guiding  light  shot  along 
some  dark  and  dubious  path.  Go  to  the  public 
libraries,  ask  for  the  books ;  their  worn  covers  and 
be-thumbed  and  soiled  pages,  and  the  frequent 
rebinding,  tell  their  own  story  of  how  they  touch 
the  popular  heart.  It  is  a  not  little  interesting 
study  of  human  nature  to  look  through  and  note 
the  "  marked "  passages,  showing  where  he  has 
spoken  to  the  questionings  and  convictions  of  those 
inquiring  souls,  who  will  never  cease  to  be  while 
human  lots  and  human  lives  are  full  of  mysteries 
inexplicable. 

It  was  at  this  period  (1857)  that  Mr.  Bowles 
made  the  brief  experiment  of  conducting  a  news- 
paper in  Boston  ;  an  enterprise  that  he  ultimately 
found  distasteful  and  abandoned.  Daring  his  ab- 
sence the  conduct  of  the  Republican  was  left  entirely 
in  Dr.  Holland's  hands — a  work  which  he  accom- 
plished with  signal  ability,  as  testified  in  that  pa- 
per's obituary  notice  of  him. 

This  was  the  period  of  the  greatest  prosperity  and 
usefulness  of  the  village  and  town  lyceums,  before 
the  lecture-bureau,  with  its  tricks  of  trade  and  its 
sometimes  mountebank  performers,  had  blighted  an 
incomparable  agency  for  stimulating  the  intellectual 
life  and  elevating  the  moral  standards  of  the  masses. 
The  human  voice  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  potent 
agencies  through  which  God  sends  His  various  mes- 


HIS   LECTURING   CAREER  47 

sages  to  man.  One  who  was  a  very  successful  lect- 
urer in  that  day,  says:  "Present  visible  personal- 
ity, the  nameless  something  we  call  magnetism,  with 
a  soul  and  a  brain  behind  it,  is,  if  not  lasting,  cer- 
tainly the  most  absorbing  and  powerful  influence  to 
which  masses  of  men  and  women  ever  have  suc- 
cumbed or  ever  will  yield." 

Among  the  thousands  who  had  read  Dr.  Holland's 
books,  there  was  a  great  curiosity  to  see  their  au- 
thor and  to  hear  him,  as  soon  as  they  learned  that 
he  could  speak  acceptably.  Invitations  to  lecture 
poured  in  upon  him,  especially  from  the  West ;  in 
one  season  he  spoke  ninety  times,  and  in  talking 
about  it  he  said,  "The  speaking  is  nothing,  it  is 
the  travelling  that  kills.  Engagements  often  wide 
apart,  in  regions  where  the  travelling  facilities  are 
limited  ;  in  inclement  weather,  often  missing  connec- 
tions and  sometimes  going  to  the  lecture-hall  hun- 
gry, having  had  time  only  to  wash  off  the  heaviest 
grime  of  the  coal-dust ;  riding  on  an  engine  or  hand- 
car, or  in  a  farmer's  very  '  one-hoss '  buggy  ;  and 
after  speaking,  finding  that,  to  be  at  all  sure  of 
reaching  to-morrow's  destination  it  would  not  an- 
swer to  take  the  chances  involved  in  a  night's  wel- 
come rest,  but  I  must  take  a  bite  and  be  off;  still, 
through  thick  and  through  thin,  and  conquering  all 
sorts  of  delays  and  difficulties,  I  never  disappointed 
an  audience."     On  one  occasion,  through  an  almost 


48  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

incredible  Lack  of  foresight  on  the  part  of  a  com- 
mittee, be  passed  a  whole  twenty-four  hours  with- 
out a  mouthful  of  food,  and  that  not  in  the  West- 
ern wilds,  but  in  the  near-by  State  of  New  Jersey. 

He  was  a  really  eloquent  speaker,  and  when  he 
delivered  his  eulogy  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the 
Springfield  City  Hall,  in  18G5,  he  won  an  oratorical 
triumph  that  surprised  and  delighted  his  most 
partial  friends.  His  lecturing  had  brought  him  a 
goodly  sum  of  money,  so  that  he  felt  justified  in 
adopting  a  refined  and  pleasant,  though  still  modest, 
style  of  living,  and  he  was  rapidly  realizing  the 
dream  of  a  home  filled  with  all  those  adjuncts  to 
true  culture  that  had  haunted  his  imagination  from 
boyhood. 

In  1858  he  published  his  dramatic  poem,  "Bitter- 
sweet," of  which  ninety  thousand  copies  have  been 
sold,  notwithstanding  it  wras  savagely  attacked  by 
some  of  the  critics. 

What  now  condenses  itself  into  the  phrase  "the 
woman  question,"  was  then  a  cloud  no  bigger  than 
a  man's  hand,  but  it  could  not  escape  the  eye  of 
such  a  moralist,  par  excellence,  as  he  was  ;  and  in 
1860  he  put  forth  his  novel—"  Miss  Gilbert's  Career." 
Having  in  his  own  home  one  of  the  most  wromanly 
of  women,  and  being  a  natural  conservative,  he  took 
the  view  that  woman's  highest  happiness  is  found  at 
the  fireside,  and  her  truest  work  in  the  home.     This 


VIEW   OF   woman's  SrHERE  49 

was  before  the  war  had  robbed  more  than  half  a 
million  of  women  of  any  reasonable  prospect  of  hav- 
ing firesides,  and  forced  so  many  women  to  make 
the  best  they  can  of  a  second-rate  style  of  happiness. 
One  woman  who  knew  him  well  says,  "  He  did  not 
entertain  exhilarating  views  of  woman's  place  in  in- 
tellectual advancement,  yet  to  the  individual  woman 
no  one  could  be  more  tender,  more  helpful,  more 
considerate."  No  one  knew  better  than  he  the  true 
value  of  that  home-life  which,  it  sometimes  seems, 
needs  to  be  rediscovered  in  this  country.  A  man 
who  knew  him  well  said,  "His  domestic  life  was 
singularly  beautiful  and  affectionate,  his  apprecia- 
tion of  all  that  is  fine,  and  noble,  and  holy  in  the 
varied  family  relations,  runs  as  a  golden  vein  through 
all  his  works."  Iu  one  of  the  darkest  hours  of  our 
war,  when  the  stoutest  hearts  were  failing,  he  said  in 
a  lecture,  "  No  nation  can  be  destroyed  while  it  pos- 
sesses a  good  home-life.  My  lawn  cannot  be  spoiled 
so  long  as  the  grass  is  green,  no  matter  how  many 
trees  may  be  prostrated,  no  matter  how  many 
flowers  may  be  trampled  under  feet  by  unclean 
beasts.  The  essential  life  and  beauty  of  the  lawn 
are  in  the  grass  and  not  iu  the  trees,  aud  not 
in  the  flowers,  and  not  in  any  creature  that  passes 
over  it  ;  and  the  life  of  a  nation  is  not  in  polit- 
ical institutions,  and  not  in  political  parties,  and 
not  in  politicians  or  great  men,  but  in  the  love-in- 


50  JOSIAH    GILBERT    HOLLAND 

spired  home-life  of  the  people."  He  puts  these 
words  into  the  mouth  of  a  character  in  one  of  his 
books.  The  man  is  talking  of  his  home,  and  says, 
"It  is  resonant  with  little  feet,  and  musical  with  the 
voices  of  children.  The}*  climb  my  knees  when  I 
return  from  the  fatigues  of  the  day.  I  walk  in  the 
garden  with  their  little  hands  clinging  to  mine.  I 
listen  to  their  prayers  at  their  mother's  knee.  I 
settle  their  petty  disputes.  I  find  in  them  and  in 
their  mother  all  the  solace  and  satisfaction  that  I 
desire  or  need.  Clubs  cannot  win  me  from  their 
society.  Fame,  honor,  place,  have  no  charms  to 
crowd  them  from  my  heart.  My  home  is  my  rest, 
my  amusement,  my  consolation,  my  treasure-house, 
my  earthly  heaven."  It  would  have  served  for  a 
picture  of  his  own,  and  thus  he  writes  of  children, 
"  Ah,  this  taking  to  one's  arms  a  little  group  of  souls 
fresh  from  the  hand  of  God,  and  living  with  them  in 
loving  companionship,  is,  or  ought  to  be,  like  living 
in  heaven."  The  man  who  held  those  views  is  not 
exactly  to  blame  for  still  thinking  that  the  men 
could  continue  to  do  the  necessary  voting. 

Then  came  the  war.  Before  that  time  the  daily 
circulation  of  the  Republican  was  five  thousand  seven 
hundred  ;  that  of  the  weekly,  eleven  thousand  two 
hundred  and  eighty  ;  but  who  can  describe  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  times  when,  as  Dr.  Holmes  exhaustively 
said,  "  we  found  but  two  things  were  absolutely  ne- 


AS   A    POLITICAL    WRITER  51 

cessary — bread  and  the  newspaper — and  of  course 
the  newspaper  as  a  mere  vehicle  for  the  latest  intel- 
ligence from  'the  front.'  "  It  was  Mr.  Bowles's  de- 
ciding voice  which  determined  the  general  political 
course  of  the  paper,  but  in  the  exciting  years  that 
immediately  preceded  the  war,  Dr.  Holland  had 
written  many  political  articles,  and  had  entered  with 
great  enthusiasm  into  the  canvass  that  first  sent  the 
Hon.  Henry  L.  Dawes  to  Congress  ;  and  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  he  would  feel  toward  a  system  founded 
on  a  radical  wrong.  When  John  Brown  was  con- 
demned,  the  Republican  said  :  "Nobody  can  respect 
an  institution  to  the  safety  o.f  which  the  death  of  the 
too  ardent  lover  of  liberty  is  essential."  Whether 
he  penned  the  sentence  or  not,  it  is  worthy  of  repre- 
senting the  natural  attitude  his  mind  would  take  in 
viewing  the  event. 

In  a  lecture  delivered  toward  the  close  of  the 
war,  he  said :  "Patriotism  is  simple  and  trustful  like 
family  affection  ;  and  its  subordinate  place  in  the 
ordinary  life  of  the  nation  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  it 
rarely  shows  itself  except  in  the  national  emergen- 
cies. "When  the  country  is  endangered,  or  insulted, 
or  outraged,  then  we  learn  something  of  the  strength 
aud  the  universality  of  patriotism,,  and  then  we  learn 
something  of  its  inspiring  and  motive  power  in  na- 
tional action.  .  .^  .  The  voice  of  that  first  hostile 
cannon  turned  against  the  flag  that  floated  over  Fort 


52  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

Sumter  reached  the  national  heart ;  and  the  nation 
casting  off  every  fetter  stood  up  as  one  man,  and 
called  for  vengeance.  ...  I  know  of  nothing 
more  sublime  than  this  sudden  waking  of  a  nation 
through  an  outrage  upon  the  object  of  its  love." 

After  the  four  years  of  struggle,  losses,  and  sacri- 
fices were  over,  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  the  North  and  made 
every  man  in  it  a  mourner.  On  the  day  of  the  fu- 
neral in  Washington,  similar  services  were  held 
throughout  the  North,  and  Dr.  Holland  was  asked 
to  deliver  a  eulogy  in  the  City  Hall  of  Springfield. 
In  this  effort  his  powers  of  oratory  seem  to  have 
attained  their  apotheosis,  if  we  may  judge  of  the 
effect  produced  as  described  by  eye-witnesses.  The 
audience  itself  was  highly  sympathetic  and  respon- 
sive ;  if  the  "prosperity  of  a  jest  lies  in  the  ear  of 
him  that  hears  it,"  how  much  more  would  a  funer- 
al address  appeal  to  the  keenest  sensibilities  of  an 
audience  solemnized  and  exalted  to  the  highest 
degree.  Eememberiug  Dr.  Holland's  deeply  relig- 
ious nature,  and  his  firm  belief  that  Lincoln  had 
been  developed  by  the  providence  of  God,  for  the 
work  he  had  done,  in  a  manner  which  no  other  or 
different  man  could  have  done  ;  and  also  Lincoln's 
own  unshakable  faith  that  God  was  overruling  all 
events  so  that  right  and  justice  should  finally  tri- 
umph, and  the  solemn  fervor  with  which,  in  his  pub- 


APPRECIATION    OF    LINCOLN  53 

lie  utterances,  be  prayed  for  guidance  and  gave 
thanks  for  successes,  we  are  not  surprised  that  Dr. 
Holland  laid  great  stress  on  the  religious  side  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  character.  All  through  the  war  he 
had  tenaciously  held  to  the  theory  that  it  was  a 
great  mercy  to  our  country,  that  no  man  of  supreme 
military  and  statesmanlike  genius — no  Caesar  or  Na- 
poleon— had  risen  among  us,  that  the  great  struggle 
had  been  carried  to  a  successful  conclusion  by  "an 
average  American,"  and  that  heart  and  conscience 
had  been  higher  factors  in  the  safe  working  out  of 
our  problem  than  dazzling  intellectual  gifts. 

Here  is  his  estimate  of  the  man,  and  considering 
the  blinding  halo  of  martyrdom  that,  at  the  mo- 
ment, surrounded  the  figure  of  the  dead  President, 
it  is  cool,  clear,  and  just.  "Strong  without  great- 
ness, acute  without  brilliancy,  penetrating  but  not 
profound,  he  was  in  intellect  an  average  American 
in  the  walk  of  life  in  which  the  nation  found  him. 
He  was  loved  for  the  qualities  of  heart  and  charac- 
ter which  I  have  attributed  to  him,  and  not  those 
powers  and  that  culture  which  distinguish  the  ma- 
jority of  our  eminent  men.  In  the  light  of  these 
facts,  let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  what  this  simple- 
hearted,  loving,  honest  Christian  man  has  done. 
"Without  an  extraordinary  intellect,  without  the 
training  of  the  schools,  without  a  wide  and  gener- 
ous culture,  without  experience,  without  the  love  of 


54  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

two-thirds  of  the  nation,  without  an  army  or  a  navy 
at  the  beginning,  he  has  presided  over  and  guided 
to  a  successful  issue  the  most  gigantic  struggle  that 
the  history  of  the  world  records.  He  has  called  to 
his  aid  the  best  men  of  the  time,  without  a  jealous 
thought  that  they  might  overshadow  him  ;  he  has 
managed  to  control  their  jealousies  of  each  other 
and  compelled  them  to  work  harmoniously ;  he  has 
sifted  out  from  weak  and  infected  material  men 
worthy  to  command  our  armies  and  lead  them  to 
victory  ;  he  has  harmonized  conflicting  claims,  in- 
terests, and  policies  ;  and  in  four  years  has  abso- 
lutely annihilated  the  military  power  of  a  rebellion 
thirty  years  in  preparation,  and  having  in  its  armies 
the  whole  military  population  of  a  third  of  the  re- 
public, and  at  its  back  the  entire  resources  of  the 
men  in  arms  and  the  producing  power  of  four  mill- 
ion slaves.  Before  he  died  he  saw  the  rebellion  in 
the  last  throes  of  dissolution,  and  knew  that  his 
great  work  was  accomplished.  .  '.  .  He  found 
the  nation  weak  and  tottering  to  destruction.  He 
left  it  strong — feared  and  respected  by  the  nations 
of  the  world.  He  found  it  full  of  personal  ene- 
mies ;  he  leaves  it  with  such  multitudes  of  friends 
that  no  one,  except  at  personal  peril,  dares  to  insult 
his  memory.  Through  the  long  nights  of  peril  and 
of  sorrow,  of  faithlessness  and  of  fear,  he  has  led  us 
into  a  certain  peace — the  peace  for  which  we  have 


55 

labored  and  prayed  and  bled  for  these  long,  long 
years.  ...  I  should  be  false  to  you,  false  to 
the  occasion,  false  to  the  memory  of  him  we  mourn, 
and  false  to  the  God  he  worshipped  and  obeyed,  if 
I  should  fail  to  adjure  you  to  remember  that  all  our 
national  triumphs  of  law  and  humanity  over  rebel- 
lion and  barbarism,  have  been  won  through  the  wis- 
dom and  power  of  a  simple,  honest,  Christian  heart. 
.  .  .  What  Mr.  Lincoln  achieved,  he  achieved 
for  us  ;  but  he  left  as  choice  a  legacy  in  his  Chris- 
tian example,  in  his  incorruptible  integrity,  and  in 
his  unaffected  simplicity,  if  we  will  appropriate  it, 
as  in  public  deeds.  ...  I  can  never  think  of 
that  toil-worn  man,  rising  long  before  his  house- 
hold and  spending  an  hour  with  his  Maker  and  his 
Bible,  without  tears.  In  that  silent  hour  of  com- 
munion, he  has  drawn  from  the  fountain  which  has 
fed  all  these  qualities  that  have  so  won  upon  our 
faith  and  love.  There,  day  after  day,  while  we  have 
been  sleeping,  he  has  knelt  and  prayed  for  us, 
prayed  for  the  country,  prayed  for  victory,  praj-ed 
for  wisdom  and  guidance,  prayed  for  strength  for 
his  great  mission,  prayed  for  the  accomplishment  of 
his  great  purposes.  There  has  he  found  consola- 
tion in  trial,  comfort  in  defeat  and  disaster,  patience 
in  reverses,  courage  for  labor,  wisdom  in  perplexity, 
and  peace  in  the  consciousness  of  God's  approval. 
.     .     .     Why  should  we  not  love  him  as  we  have 


56 


JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 


loved  no  other  chief  magistrate?  He  was  a  con- 
secrated man,  consecrated  to  his  country  and  his 
God  !  "  These  excerpts  give  but  a  faint  notion  of 
the  power  and  pathos  of  an  address  which  was  lis- 
tened to  with  intense  and  often  tearful  attention  ; 
they  are  selected  to  show  what  Dr.  Holland  be- 
lieved were  the  mainsprings  in  the  life  and  char- 
acter of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Undertakes  the  "Life  of  Lincoln" — Complete  Harmony 
with  his  Subject — View  of  Lincoln's  Essential  Traits — 
His  Religious  Side  and  Deep  Melancholy. 

The  address  led  up  to  a  fresli  chapter  of  success 
in  the  life  of  Dr.  Holland.  At  that  time  very  little 
was  known  of  the  life  of  this  remarkable  man,  who 
had  appeared  at  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  nation, 
out  of  comparative  obscurity,  and  had  proved  mirac- 
ulously equal  to  the  occasion,  except  what  had  been 
learned  from  his  public  acts.  There  was  an  eager 
curiosity  to  learn  of  his  early  days,  and  of  the  ante- 
cedents of  this  phenomenal  career.  An  enterprising 
publisher  saw  his  chance,  asked  Dr.  Holland  to  do 
the  work,  and  at  once  he  was  speeding  westward  to 
gather  up  the  smallest  fragments  of  information. 
Completed  within  the  space  of  a  few  months,  but 
condensing  and  combining  all  the  facts  then  obtain- 
able— for  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  immense 
mass  of  public  archives  since  availed  of  by  Lin- 
coln's biographers  were  then  inaccessible — it  was  an 
interesting,  readable,  popular,  essentially  journalis- 
tic biography  ;  possessing  among  its  elements  that 


58  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

greatest  of  all — timeliness  ;  reaching  a  sale  in  a  very 
short  time  of  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  copies, 
and,  to  use  his  own  words,  inuring  so  greatly  to 
his  financial  benefit,  "  that  I  felt  I  might  carry  out 
some  objects  that  had  always  been  verj  near  my 
heart." 

The  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln  had  by  no  means 
quenched  party  feeling,  or  extinguished  political 
animosities,  and  in  his  preface  Dr.  Holland  said  :  "I 
have  not  attempted  to  disguise  or  conceal  my  own 
personal  partiality  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  my  thor- 
ough sympathy  with  the  political  principles  to  which 
his  life  was  devoted.  Though  unconscious  of  any 
partiality  for  a  party  capable  of  blinding  my  vision, 
or  distorting  my  judgment,  I  am  aware  that,  at  this 
early  day,  when  opinions  are  still  sharply  divided 
upon  the  same  questions  concerning  principles,  poli- 
cies, and  men  which  prevailed  during  Mr.  Lincoln's 
active  political  life,  it  is  impossible  to  utter  any 
judgment  which  will  not  have  a  bearing  upon  the 
party  politics  of  the  time.  Thus,  the  only  alterna- 
tive of  writing  according  to  personal  partialities  and 
personal  convictions,  has  been  writing  without  any 
partialities,  and  without  any  convictions.  I  have 
chosen  to  be  a  man,  rather  than  a  machine  ;  and  if 
this  shall  subject  me  to  the  charge  of  writing  in  the 
interest  of  a  party,  I  must  take  what  comes  of  it. 

"  I  have  tried  to  paint  the  character  of  Mr.  Lincoln 


Lincoln's  early  years  59 

and  to  sketch  his  life,  clinging  closely  b}r  his  side. 
.  .  .  to  throw  light  upon  specially  interesting 
phases  of  his  private  life  and  public  career,  to  ex- 
hibit the  style  and  scope  of  his  genius,  and  to  ex- 
pose his  social,  political,  and  religious  sentiments 
and  opinions." 

The  early  trials  of  Dr.  Holland  fitted  him  to  enter 
into  the  life  of  the  son  of  the  poverty-stricken  pion- 
eer with  fullest  insight.  Thomas  Lincoln  was  one  of 
the  "rolling-stones,"  and  Dr.  Holland  very  incisively 
says:  "When  inefficient  men  become  very  uncom- 
fortable, they  are  quite  likely  to  try  emigration  as 
a  remedy.  A  good  deal  of  what  is  'the  pioneer 
spirit '  is  simply  a  spirit  of  shiftless  discontent.'' 
The  poor  little  home  which  it  had  cost  infinite  toil 
to  establish  was  sold  for  ten  barrels  of  whiskey — 
bought  to  be  bartered  in  the  new  locality — and 
twenty  dollars  in  money.  It  was  left  behind,  but 
not  till  the  mother  had  taken  her  living  boy  with 
her  to  pay  a  last  visit  to  the  grave  of  the  little  son 
she  had  buried  ;  an  incident  never  forgotten  by  her 
illustrious  son.  The  new  home  was  poorer  and 
more  destitute  of  comforts  than  the  old  one,  and 
the  mother  could  no  longer  withstand  the  hardships 
and  deprivations  of  border  life  ;  and  when  Abraham 
was  ten  years  old  she  died  of  quick  consumption, 
and  was  laid  to  rest  under  the  trees  near  the  lonely 
cabin,  with  none  but  the  simplest  ceremonies.     "  But 


60  JOSIATI    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

neither  father  nor  son  was  content  to  part  with  her 
without  a  formal  Christian  tribute  to  her  worth  and 
meinoiw.  For  many  years  Abraham  Lincoln  never 
saw  a  church,  but  there  came  to  the  poor  home  in 
Kentucky,  at  intervals  of  several  months,  one  of 
those  faithful,  humble,  itinerant  preachers  whose 
influence  for  good  in  inchoate  American  communi- 
ties can  never  be  measured,  named  Elkin — a  Bap- 
tist— to  which  church  Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln 
belonged."  From  him  Abraham  Lincoln  gained  his 
first  notion  of  public  speaking,  and  he  remembered 
him  with  admiring  love.  The  father  could  not 
write,  but  the  boy  had,  by  snatches  and  under 
three  different  teachers — in  all  being  at  school  less 
than  a  year — acquired  an  imperfect  but  legible  pen- 
manship, his  copy-book  being  often  the  sand  at  his 
feet,  or  a  bit  of  birch -bark.  So  father  and  son 
united  in  a  letter  describing  the  mothers  death, 
and  asking  him  to  come  to  Indiana  and  preach  her 
funeral  sermon.  To  comply  would  require  the  poor 
preacher  to  ride  on  horseback  nearly  a  hundred 
miles  through  the  wilderness,  "and  it  is  certainly 
to  be  remembered,  to  the  humble  itinerant's  honor, 
that  he  was  willing  to  pay  this  tribute  of  respect  to 
the  woman  who  had  so  thoroughly  honored  him  and 
his  sacred  office."  He  answered  the  letter,  appoint- 
ing a  future  Sunday  when  he  would  come,  and  com- 
missioned the  young  writer  to  notify  the  neighbors, 


LINCOLN'S   DEBT   TO    HIS   MOTHER  61 

little  dreaming  that  his  kind  act  would  find  remem- 
brance wherever  the  life-history  of  the  martyr-Pres- 
ident is  read  or  known.  The  people  came  from 
twenty  miles  around,  and  those  who  sit  at  ease  and 
asleep  in  Zion,  ought  to  read  Dr.  Holland's  account 
of  the  gathering,  to  learn  what  "gospel  privileges" 
mean  to  those  who  are  not  saturated  with  them. 
The  good  parson  preached  with  unusual  fluency  and 
fervor,  and  spoke  of  the  precious  Christian  woman 
who  had  gone  with  the  warm  praise  she  deserved, 
and  held  her  up  as  an  example  of  true  womanhood. 
"  Those  who  knew  the  tender  and  reverent  spirit 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  later  in  life,  will  not  doubt  that 
he  returned  to  his  cabin-home  deeply  impressed  by 
all  that  he  had  heard.  It  was  the  rounding-up  for 
him  of  a  Christian  mother's  life  and  teachings.  It 
recalled  her  sweet  and  patient  example,  her  assidu- 
ous efforts  to  inspire  him  with  pure  and  noble  mo- 
tives, her  simple  instructions  in  divine  truth,  her 
devoted  love  for  him,  and  the  motherly  offices  she 
had  rendered  him  during  all  his  tender  years.  His 
character  was  planted  in  this  Christian  mother's 
love  ;  and  those  who  have  wondered  at  the  truthful- 
ness and  earnestness  of  his  mature  character,  have 
only  to  remember  that  the  tree  was  true  to  the  soil 
from  which  it  sprang."  Mr.  Lincoln  always  looked 
back  to  her  with  an  unspeakable  affection,  and  long 
after,  said  to  a  friend,  "All  that  I  am  or  hope  to  be, 


62  JOSIAH    GILBERT    HOLLAND 

I  owe  to  my  angel  mother."  The  tribute  to  Chris- 
tian character  would  have  been  equally  true  of  Dr. 
Holland's  mother's,  with  the  difference  that  he  was 
able  to  do  all  that  mortal  affection  and  assiduity 
could  do  to  make  her  happy  long  after  his  career 
had  been  crowned  with  success. 

The  more  Dr.  Holland  learned  of  Lincoln's  char- 
acter and  career,  the  more  deeply  was  he  impressed 
with  the  essentially  religious  elements  that  were  at 
their  foundation,  and  his  carefully  elaborated  state- 
ment of  it  becomes  interesting  when  compared  with 
his  own  carefully  expressed  views,  whenever  he  had 
deemed  that  any  good  could  be  effected  by  such  an 
expression.  He  says:  "He  was  a  religious  man. 
The  fact  may  be  stated  without  any  reservation,  with 
only  an  explanation.  He  believed  in  God  and  in  His 
personal  supervision  of  the  affairs  of  men.  He  be- 
lieved himself  to  be  under  His  control  and  guidance. 
He  believed  in  the  power  and  ultimate  triumph  of 
the  right  through  his  belief  in  God.  This  unwav- 
ering faith  in  a  Divine  Providence  began  at  his 
mother's  knee  and  ran  like  a  thread  of  gold  through 
all  the  inner  experiences  of  his  life.  His  constant 
sense  of  human  duty  was  one  of  the  forms  by  which 
his  faith  manifested  itself.  His  conscience  took  a 
broader  grasp  than  the  simple  apprehension  of  right 
and  wrong.  He  recognized  an  immediate  relation 
between  God  and  himself  in  all  the  actions  and  pas- 


LINCOLN    AND    SLAVERY  03 

sions  of  his  life.  He  was  not  '  professedly  '  a  Chris- 
tian— that  is,  he  subscribed  to  no  creed,  joined  no 
organization  of  Christian  disciples.  He  spoke  little 
then  (when  a  young  man),  perhaps  less  than  he  did 
afterward,  and  always  sparingly,  of  his  religious  be- 
lief and  experiences  ;  but  that  he  had  a  deep  re- 
ligious life,  sometimes  imbued  with  superstition, 
there  is  no  doubt.  AVe  guess  at  a  mountain  of 
marble  by  the  outcropping  ledges  that  hide  their 
whiteness  among  the  ferns." 

Many  people  fail  to  realize  what  a  deep  and  abid- 
ing hold  anti-slavery  views  had  upon  the  man  who 
was  to  go  down  in  history  as  the  emancipator  of 
four  millions  of  slaves,  even  when  a  very  young 
statesman  and  when  he  was  very  lonesome  in  hold- 
ing them.  In  the  year  1836,  when  Lincoln  was 
twenty-seven,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
of  Illinois  from  Sangamon  County,  and  he  and  his 
fellow-member  from  the  same  county — whom  we 
are  justified  in  fancying  might  be  influenced  by  a 
man  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  great  argumentative  powers — 
were  the  only  two  who  would  sign  a  protest  that 
"  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on  both  in- 
justice and  bad  policy."  This  was  the  beginning  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  anti-slavery  record,  which  culminated, 
twenty-six  years  after,  in  the  Emancipation  Proc- 
lamation. The  sublimest  moment  in  the  history  of 
that  epoch-making  document  was  the  one  in  which 


b4  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

Mr.  Lincoln  informed  his  cabinet  of  his  unalterable 
determination  to  issue  it ;  because,  said  Mr.  Lincoln, 
"  I  have  promised  my  God  that  I  will  do  it  ;  "  and 
when  Mr.  Chase  asked  if  he  had  heard  correctly,  Mr. 
Lincoln  replied  :  "I  made  a  solemn  vow  before  God 
that,  if  General  Lee  should  be  driven  back  from 
Pennsylvania,  I  would  crown  the  result  by  the  dec- 
laration of  freedom  to  the  slaves."  Two  days  after, 
in  alluding  to  the  proclamation,  when  a  large  body 
of  men  had  appeared  before  the  White  House  in 
recognition  of  it,  he  said  :  "  What  I  did,  I  did  after 
a  very  full  deliberation,  and  under  a  heavy  and 
solemn  sense  of  responsibility.  I  can  only  trust  in 
God  I  have  made  no  mistake."  Two  years  later  he 
was  able  to  say  :  "As  affairs  have  turned,  it  is  the 
central  act  of  my  administration,  and  the  great  event 
of  the  nineteenth  century." 

A  lady,  in  writing  to  Professor  John  Fiske,  asked 
him  whether  he  discerned  what  the  old  divines  used 
to  call  "  The  hand  of  God  in  history."  This  is  his 
reply:  "I  am  sure  that  I  do.  My  belief  that  all 
human  life  is  the  working  out  of  a  Divine  Idea,  to 
be  realized  in  God's  own  good  time,  is  as  unshaka- 
ble as  my  belief  in  my  own  existence.  But  for  this 
belief,  the  study  of  history  would  have  no  interest 
for  me." 

Certainly  Dr.  Holland  was  greatly  capable  of 
entering  into  the  motives  of  a  man  who  had  this 


APPRECIATION    OF    LINCOLN  65 

deep  abiding  sense  of  God's  direction  of  the  whirl- 
wind of  war,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  book, 
which  was  a  marvel  of  rapid  work,  met  a  ready  sale 
and  helped  to  enthrone  Lincoln  in  some  hearts  that 
had  but  reluctantly  yielded  their  allegiance.  He 
did  not  blink  the  blemishes  in  the  grand  character 
— he  accounted  for  them  by  exhibiting  the  coarse 
and  meagre  surroundings  of  the  hard  pioneer  life. 

People  have  sometimes  wondered  that  a  work  so 
hastily  written  should  have  attained  so  great  a  pop- 
ularity ;  but  the  subject,  of  whose  early  life,  at  that 
time,  very  little  was  known,  the  historian,  and  the 
eager  audience  to  which  the  recital  was  addressed, 
all  had,  deep  down,  the  religious  element  in  com- 
mon. Lincoln  regarded  himself  as  a  man  of  destiny 
— he  did  not  look  upon  himself  as  an  aimless  atom 
floating  on  a  "  stream  of  tendency,"  but — certainly 
after  the  war  began — as  God-appointed  to  carry  it 
forward — an  agent  set  apart  for  a  peculiar  work — 
just  as  irrevocably  dedicated  to  it  as  David  was  to 
his  by  Samuel's  anointing.  Into  this  spirit  his  bi- 
ographer could  heartily  enter,  as  wrell  as  into  the 
melancholy  produced  by  seeing  the  terrible  destruc- 
tion of  heart,  and  hope,  and  health,  and  life,  and 
home,  wrought  by  the  wrar.  It  was  little  wronder  in 
1862,  in  the  midst  of  reverses,  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
should  say,  "  I  shall  never  be  glad  any  more  ; " 
and  certainly,  as  the  responsibilities  and  fatigues  of 
5 


66  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

the  struggle  made  deeper  inroads  upon  his  strength 
and  vitality,  the  presentiment  took  possession  of  him 
that  he  should  not  survive  its  completion.  "We  may 
call  it  superstition,  or  fanaticism,  but  it  is  none  the 
less  certain  that  Mr.  Lincoln  for  years  dwelt  in  the 
shadow  of  Azrael's  wing,  and  that  it  tinged  with  deep 
solemnity  both  his  acts  and  his  public  utterances. 
One  needs  to  have  grown  up  in  the  shadow  of  New 
England  theology,  as  preached  and  believed  in,  in 
Dr.  Holland's  early  manhood,  to  appreciate  what  a 
preparation  wras  his  for  entering  into  the  very  struc- 
ture and  attitude  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind.  And  as  to 
the  public  he  addressed,  had  they  not  seen,  like  the 
Israelites,  "  the  horse  and  his  rider  overthrown," 
and  a  people  emerging  in  victory  and  triumph  from 
the  bloody  sea  through  which  they  had  passed,  under 
the  captaincy  of  this  fore-ordained  leader  ?  Subject, 
biographer,  and  public  wrere  alike  suited  to  each 
other,  and  therein  lies  the  secret  of  the  phenomenal 
success. 

No  one  felt  more  than  Dr.  Holland  himself  the 
imperfections  that  must  inhere  in  such  a  hastily 
gathered  book.  He  says  in  his  preface  :  "  The  hum- 
ble biographers  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  though  they  satisfy 
an  immediate  want  and  gather  much  that  would, 
otherwise,  be  forever  lost,  can  hardly  hope  to  be  more 
than  tributaries  to  that  better  and  complete  biogra- 
phy which  the  next,  or  some  succeeding,  generation 


VALUE   OF   THE    "LIFE"  67 

will  be  sure  to  produce  and  possess."  "The  life  of 
Washington,  even  though  it  was  written  by  a  Mar- 
shall, .  .  .  waited  half  a  century  to  give  it  sym- 
metry and  completeness."  Certainly  one  can  be  too 
near  a  period,  or  a  man,  to  give  either  a  just  histori- 
cal perspective  ;  but  posterity  will  be  grateful  to  Dr. 
Holland  for  his  sympathetic  story  of  a  wonderful 
life,  lived  in  the  midst  of  events  that  will  go  down  in 
history  as  a  marvellous  example  of  what  can  be  ac- 
complished by  "a  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  and  for  the  people." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Becomes  the  Possessor  of  "  Brightwood  " — A  Pioneer  in  Do- 
mestic Sanitation — Publication  of  ' '  Katlirina  " — Invited 
to  Edit  Hours  at  Home — European  Sojourn— Founding 
of  Scrib  fur's  Monthly — Death  of  Mr.  Scribner — Illustra- 
tions of  the  Magazine — Pride  in  his  Lay  Pulpit. 

As  the  work  of  Dr.  Holland  became  more  ex- 
clusively literary,  he  did  more  and  more  of  it  at 
home,  in  his  own  library  ;  there  he  wrote  most  of  his 
book-notices,  which  were  trenchant  and  interesting, 
and  very  good  guides  to  the  worth  or  worthlessness 
of  books,  as  adapted  to  the  mental  and  moral  needs 
of  those  average  New  England  men  and  women  who 
were  the  readers  of  the  Bepublccm. 

The  pecuniary  success  of  his  lecture-tours  and  his 
books  had  been  such,  that  at  last  he  felt  warranted 
in  indulging  in  one  of  the  prime  pleasures  of  a  man 
of  taste — building  a  house  according  to  his  own 
ideas.  After  he  had  done  that  "best  day's  work 
for  himself,"  in  marrying  Miss  Chapirj,  he  and 
his  wife  lived  with  her  widowed  mother  ;  but  with- 
out making  any  special  ado  in  the  matter,  and  blow- 
ing a  trumpet  of  discovery,  Dr.  Holland  had  thought 


DOMESTIC    HYGIENE  b9 

out  for  himself  a  system  of  prophylactic  hygiene, 
especially  as  related  to  those  who  had  reason  to  sup- 
pose they  were  predisposed  to  pulmonary  consump- 
tion. It  was  thoroughly  original  with  him,  and  in 
advance  of  his  time — for  the  now  familiar  inquiries 
in  regard  to  the  relation  of  soil-moisture  to  this  dis- 
ease, had  not  then  beeu  initiated — and  the  much-in- 
structed public  of  to-day  has  not  yet  caught  up  with 
his  positions  ;  and  if  he  was  ever  inclined  to  mourn 
over  having  spent  so  many  years  in  striving  to  fit 
himself  for  a  profession  that  was  to  be  eventually 
laid  aside,  he  ought  to  have  been  reconciled,  by 
realizing  that  it  had  given  him  just  ideas  as  to  what 
goes  to  the  building  of  a  healthy  body.  At  that 
time  nobody  thought  of  actively  combating  a  con- 
sumptive tendency — its  infectiousness  had  not  been 
dreamed  of — and  where  one  or  more  members  of  a 
family  had  been  swept  off  by  it,  the  wiseacres  shook 
their  heads  and  said,  "It's  only  a  question  of  time 
as  to  when  the  rest  will  go."  Two  of  the  Doctor's 
sisters  had  died  of  it,  within  the  compass  of  a  year, 
and  a  third  had  followed  in  a  month  or  two  with 
measles. 

There  were  circumstances  connected  with  the 
death  of  the  last  sister,  that  preyed  deeply  on  his 
mind,  and  this,  added  to  the  overwork  of  the 
struggle  to  become  educated,  and  earn  the  needful 
money  at  the  same  time,  had  produced  in  him  a 


70  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

physical  condition  far  different  from  what  he  ex- 
hibited in  the  later  time  of  his  robust  and  vigorous 
manhood.  The  upheaval  of  opinion  that  had  in- 
vaded the  world  of  traditional  religion  had  also  at- 
tacked hoary  beliefs  in  medicine,  the  air  was  full  of 
therapeutic  "isms"  and  "  pathies,"  but  in  the  midst 
of  the  ferment  it  was  being  found  out  that  disease, 
instead  of  being  a  distinct  entity,  that  you  could  kill 
with  a  poison,  or  let  out  with  a  lancet — as  you  would 
wring  a  chicken's  neck  and  have  done  with  it— con- 
sisted in  a  lack  of  balance  and  completeness  in  the 
processes  that  go  to  the  building  up  of  the  system, 
some  hinderance  to  the  perfect  performance  of  the 
vital  functions.  Long  before  it  had  been  proved 
that  dry  soil  for  a  house  to  stand  on,  and  consequent 
dry  air  above  it  for  its  inmates  to  breathe,  is  a 
fundamental  condition  in  preventing  the  develop- 
ment of  the  seeds  of  consumption,  Dr.  Holland  had 
made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  forsake  the  damp 
river  bank,  and  so  he  selected  a  house  on  a  sandy 
spot,  on  which  pine-trees  readily  grew.  As  it  was 
not  a  "fashionable"  locality,  the  remark  was  made 
"  Who  ever  would  want  to  live  there,  except  some 
hare-brained  poet  like  Dr.  Holland  ?  "  notwithstand- 
ing which  remark,  his  family  and  himself  lived  there 
and  thrived.  Undoubtedly,  the  relief  from  worry 
that  came  with  his  finding  Ms  true  vocation  in  con- 
genial and  steady  employment,  contributed  its  share, 


THE    BUFF    COTTAGE 
[Where  "Bittersweet"  was  written] 


BUILDS   BRIGHT  WOOD  71 

and  the  greater  ease  in  commanding  the  elements 
of  good  living  that  came  in  with  railroads,  helped. 
Certain  it  is,  that  after  an  interval  of  being  "delicate  " 
— the  word  then  used  to  describe  a  lack  of  robust 
health — he  developed  a  constitution  that  bore  the 
wear  and  tear  of  editorial  life,  and  the  exhausting 
work  of  the  lecturer,  for  many  years,  without  a 
thought  that  he  was  not  physically  fully  up  to  par. 
He  was  a  striking  example  of  what  intelligent  and 
rational  living  can  do. 

But  the  modest  little  "  Buff  Cottage,"  in  which  he 
had  grown  into  a  recognized  position  among  forces 
that  were  moulding  his  region  and  his  day,  was  small, 
his  daughters  were  growing  up,  and  the  yearning 
to  create  a  home  in  accordance  with  his  own  ideas 
took  possession  of  him,  and  he  built  "Bright- 
wood  " — a  house  in  which  he  incorporated  some 
novel  notions,  especially  in  the  brilliant  coloring,  of 
which  it  was  the  first  example  in  the  vicinity,  but 
which  is  now  so  much  used  as  to  be  commonplace. 
This  again  was  so  radically  unique,  that  people  said, 
"Just  what  you'd  expect  in  one  of  these  literary 
men  ;  "  but  instead  of  its  being  one  of  those  daring 
innovations  that  nobody  would  follow,  it  showed  him 
in  touch  with  the  spirit  of  his  time,  and  that  while 
travelling  up  and  down  the  land  he  had  kept  his 
eyes  and  ears  open,  and  knew  that  the  next  evolution 
in  thought  would  be  the  aesthetic.     In  the  grounds 


72  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

about  the  house  there  was  room  for  the  embodiment 
of  all  his  dreams — the  carefully  kept  lawn,  the  pleas- 
ant brook,  the  rustic  bridges— in  short  all  that  makes 
a  "place  "befitting  the  gentleman  ;  and  earth  proba- 
bly has  few  deeper  joys  than  that  which  he  felt  on 
taking  possession  of  this  charming  home,  won  by  his 
own  indefatigable  industry.  Here  were  gathered 
the  three  elements  which  Beecher  says  are  indispen- 
sible  to  a  true  home — age,  middle  life,  and  childhood. 
One  of  the  fairest  chambers  was  devoted  to  the  still 
living,  sad-hearted  mother  ;  there  were  charming- 
apartments  for  the  two  daughters,  and  all  that  could 
make  the  nursery  perfect  for  the  baby  boy.  The 
parlor  walls  bore  evidences  that  he  felt  he  might  in- 
dulge in  an  occasional  good  picture. 

At  that  date  he  might  have  been  cited  as  the  most 
successful  man  of  letters  in  the  United  States,  meas- 
ured either  by  the  number  of  his  readers  or  by  the 
solid  pecuniary  rewards  that  had  come  to  him.  In 
commenting  upon  the  almost  reckless  generosity 
with  which  he  extended  help  to  the  needy,  especially 
if  they  were  fellow-wielders  of  the  pen,  one  man, 
who  knew  him,  says,  "  He  was,  notwithstanding,  a 
methodical  and  careful  man  of  business,  and  seldom 
one  man  combines  the  two  qualities  of  thrift  and 
generosity  to  the  same  extent."  Perhaps  part  of  the 
explanation  of  the  husbanding  of  the  resources  that 
had  mainly  been  fished  up  out  of  an  inkstand,  so 


PUBLISHED  73 

that  they  could  be  constructed  into  an  attractive, 
modern,  aesthetic  home,  lies  in  a  direction  indicated 
in  the  experience  of  a  minister,  who  found  it  very 
hard  to  resist  the  spending  of  mone}r,  and  so,  as 
quickly  as  possible,  passed  all  of  his  receipts  into 
the  hands  of  his  wife,  saying,  "  She's  the  only  one  of 
this  pair  that  has  a  particle  of  saving  grace." 

In  1867  he  published  "  Kathrina,"  and  it  rapidly 
reached  a  sale  of  one  hundred  thousand  copies — 
and  to  this  day  has  a  stead}''  sale.  It  will  long  be 
prized  for  its  accurate  delineations  of  the  ideas  that 
pervaded  the  mind  of  ante-railroad  Central  New  Eng- 
land sixty  years  ago,  while  it  yet  remained  a  se- 
cluded and  homogeneous  section,  whose  very  foun- 
dations had  been  laid  in  such  strong  demarcation 
in  theological  opinions  as  constituted  the  holders 
of  them  a  peculiar  people  without  their  knowing  or 
suspecting  it. 

Seventeen  years  he  had  worked — cheerfully,  indus- 
triously, and  unremittingly — in  the  editorial  harness 
of  a  daily  paper,  for  his  books  and  lectures  were 
literal  asides  from  the  main  labor  of  his  life.  Al- 
ready he  had  been  urged  to  come  to  New  York  and 
take  charge  of  a  magazine — Hours  at  Home — then 
published  by  the  Scribner  firm,  the  scope  of  which 
needed  broadening  to  meet  the  demands  of  the 
time  ;  but  his  daughters  were  just  leaving  school, 
and  he  felt  that  he  had  earned  a  rest,  and  so  had 


74  JOSTAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

the  faithful,  energetic,  careful  wife,  and  a  foreign 
tour  presented  itself  to  him  in  an  irresistible  as- 
pect. It  had  always  been  his  delight  to  lavish  on 
his  children  all  the  wealth  of  opportunity  that  had 
been  denied  to  his  own  youth. 

His  connection  with  the  Republican  was  brought 
to  a  close  in  1867.  Brightwood  was  rented,  and  he 
set  forth  on  a  pilgrimage  which  was  to  broaden  his 
mind,  develop  his  aesthetic  taste,  increase  his  ac- 
quaintance with  universal  human  nature,  and  fit 
him  worthily  to  occupy  the  lofty  niche  of  pure  and 
uplifting  influence  then  preparing  for  him.  He  be- 
lieved that  the  European  trip  was  a  Providential 
preparation  for  the  larger  field. 

It  happened  that  President  Porter,  of  Yale  Col- 
lege, who  had  been  Dr.  Holland's  first  pastor— he 
had  united  with  the  church  by  letter — when  he 
came  an  unknown  physician  to  try  to  make  a  place 
for  himself  in  Springfield,  was  a  guest  at  Bright- 
wood  on  the  night  before  the  family  left  for  their 
tour.  The  pastor  had  sympathized  with  the  young- 
man  in  his  struggle  with  poverty  and  obscurity, 
against  what  seemed  unconquerable  odds,  and  could 
fully  appreciate  the  contrast  presented  by  the  life 
in  this  beautiful  home,  and  those  days  of  darkness  ; 
and  certainly  it  was  a  truly  American  antithesis  of 
circumstances  that  this  proud-spirited  man,  who 
had  winced  under  the  rebukes  of  a  superintendent 


HIS   EUROPEAN   TRIP  75 

of  a  cotton -mill  for  careless  work,  should  be  able 
to  entertain  in  a  fitting  manner  the  president  of 
a  leading  college  as  his  peer.  But  not  of  this  was 
he  thinking  as  the  household  knelt  for  their  morn- 
ing worship,  a  habit  which  Dr.  Holland  always 
maintained.  President  Porter  says :  "  The  doctor 
offered  a  singularly  fervent  and  characteristic  prayer 
of  thanksgiving  and  praise  for  the  blessings  of  his 
life  in  that  house,  in  which  he  seemed  to  pass  that 
portion  of  his  life  in  review,  in  most  heartfelt  grati- 
tude for  the  way,  guidance,  and  blessing  of  God." 

Unwittingly  to  those  concerned  this  was  "  Finis  " 
to  a  completed  chapter  of  life  ;  when  they  set  forth 
it  was  the  closing  of  a  gate  on  the  road  passed 
over,  for  when  they  returned  to  it,  it  was  merely 
pausing  at  a  station,  before  pressing  on  to  new  re- 
gions. 

He  was  resolved  that  the  European  trip  should 
be  something  more  than  a  mere  arriving  at  places, 
and  rushing  through  dozens  of  cathedrals,  and  past 
miles  of  pictures  and  statues  ;  that  it  should,  if  pos- 
sible, result  in  a  culture  that  should  "  strike  in,"  and 
not  be  a  mere  surface  polish.  Sojourns  of  greater 
or  lesser  length  were  made  in  places  that  could 
supply  superior  instructors  to  his  daughters  in 
music  and  languages.  Himself  he  confessed  "too  old 
to  learn  a  foreign  tongue  " — a  happy  circumstance 
those  will  think  who  regard  his  simple,  pure,  idio- 


76  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

matic  English  the  best  possible  of  all  languages  in 
which  his  message  could  be  conveyed  to  his  au- 
dience. He  applied  his  powers  of  observation  and 
comparison  to  the  study  of  men,  and  current  events, 
with  all  bis  wonted  keenness  and  diligence,  and  it 
is  refreshing  in  these  days  of  flickering  patriotism, 
and  Anglomania  in  influential  quarters,  that  he 
came  back  singing  louder  pseans  than  ever  that  God 
had  hidden  America  till  the  fulness  of  time,  and 
then  had  developed  a  country  where  any  one  of 
those  that  Burns  describes  as  a  man,  who  is  a  man 
"for  a'  that  and  a'  that/'  could  find  work  and  a 
home.  While  the  daughters  were  studying  music, 
and  the  little  boy  was  absorbing  foreign  tongues 
from  his  instructors,  a  trouble  that  had  long  been 
latent  in  Mrs.  Holland's  eyes  took  on  a  new  and 
active  form  that  necessitated  treatment  at  the  hands 
of  the  celebrated  Von  Grafe,  who  did  his  best,  but 
had  to  tell  her  that  henceforth  her  vision  would 
be  greatly  diminished — a  limitation  that  called  out 
afresh  all  the  tenderness  and  chivalry  in  the  nature 
of  him  who  was  pledged  to  care  for  her  in  sickness 
and  in  health,  and  the  quiet  bravery  with  which  the 
deprivation  was  submitted  to  by  Mrs.  Holland,  it 
seems,  could  have  been  shown  only  by  a  woman 
whose  "  heart  was  stayed  on  God." 

At  the  end  of  two  years  they  came  back,  and  very 
soon  after,  as  the  writer  was  passing  from  Pittsfield 


"  HOURS    AT   HOME"  77 

to  Springfield,  Dr.  Holland  came  into  the  car  at  Rus- 
sell. After  the  exchange  of  hearty  greetings,  for  we 
had  long  been  friendly,  I  said,  "  Tell  me  about  Eu- 
rope." "  Oh,  splendid,  beautiful,  but  I  was  tired  to 
death  of  loafing,  and  longed  to  be  at  work  again," 
and  then  he  proceeded  to  tell  how  that  when  he 
went  away  an  offer  to  edit  a  magazine — Hours  at 
Home — then  published  by  Scribner,  had  been  made, 
and  that  it  had  remained  open  during  his  absence. 
He  dwelt  on  the  beauty  and  nobility  of  Mr.  Scrib- 
ner's  character,  which  through  many  years  he  had 
had  an  opportunity  to  study.  He  dwelt  on  his  pu- 
rity of  soul  and  loftiness  of  aim  ;  "he  would  never 
lend  his  sanction  to  anything  of  doubtful  moral  qual- 
ity." He  kindled  a  high  admiration  for  Mr.  Scrib- 
ner in  his  listener,  and  then  added,  "I  had  lots  of 
time  to  think,  and  I  fully  made  up  my  mind  that  there 
was  a  field  for  a  new  literary  magazine  in  America." 
Previously  to  going  to  Europe  he  had  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Mr.  Roswell  Smith,  then  a  lawyer 
of  Indiana,  and  had  formed  a  high  opinion  of  Mr. 
Smith's  acute  business  judgment  and  great  business 
ability.  They  met  again  in  Europe,  and  discussed, 
among  other  things,  the  proposition  as  to  the  editor- 
ship of  Houi^  at  Home — a  proposition  that,  while 
it  offered  a  field,  presented  no  dominating  attraction 
to  the  doctor.  In  his  own  account  of  the  found- 
ing of  Scribner's  new  magazine  he  savs,  "I  had  con- 


78  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

eluded  that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  great  suc- 
cess for  that  magazine  ;  that  I  did  not  myself  like  it, 
and  that  I  would  not  identify  myself  with  it,  or  tie 
myself  to  its  traditions."  Mr.  Smith,  on  account  of 
his  health  and  for  some  other  reasons,  was  desirous 
of  coming  East  to  live,  and  both  of  them  were  turn- 
ing their  eyes  Americawards,  and  were  ready  to  form 
definite  plans  for  the  future.  They  met  on  a  bridge 
in  Geneva,  and  the  conversation  at  once  reverted 
to  the  editorship,  and,  to  cite  Dr.  Holland  again  : 
"  When  I  said  that  instead  of  entering  upon  the 
editorship  of  an  old  magazine,  I  should  like  to  start 
a  new  one,  he  [Mr.  Smith]  announced  himself  ready 
to  undertake,  as  business  manager,  an  enterprise  of 
that  kind  with  me.  The  result  of  the  conversation 
.  .  .  was  a  verbal  agreement  that  we  should 
unite  our  forces,  on  our  return  to  America,  for  the 
effecting  of  this  project."  No  wonder  that  that 
Geneva  bridge  thenceforth  became  a  uniquely  sig- 
nificant landmark  in  the  lives  of  both  these  gentle- 
men. As  Mr.  Smith  returned  before  Dr.  Holland, 
he  bore  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Mr.  Charles 
Scribner,  "commending  him  in  such  terms  to  the 
publisher's  consideration  and  confidence  as  have 
been  a  thousand  times  justified  by  his  subse- 
quent business  history."  This  was  what  Dr.  Hol- 
land -wrote  when  reviewing  the  phenomenally  suc- 
cessful history  of  the  magazine  at  the  close  of  the 


"the  century"  79 

eleven  years  when  it  exchanged  the  name,  "  Scrib- 
ner s  "  for  that  of  The  Century  Magazine ;  he  also 
added,  "As  the  inventors  would  say,  'I  claim  the 
discovery  of  Mr.  Eoswell  Smith,  and  the  combina- 
tion with  Mr.  Charles  Scribner  and  myself,  which 
resulted  in  the  production  of  Scribner  s  Monthly.' " 
Dr.  Holland  penned  that  sentence  in  June,  1881,  at 
a  time  when  there  had  been  radical  changes  made 
in  all  the  business  relations  among  the  proprietors 
of  the  magazine,  but  little  suspected  that  it  was  to 
be  as  if  with  his  own  hand  he  had  engraved  the 
headstone,  to  mark  the  grave  of  the  publication  with 
which  his  life  was  identified  ;  for  this  was  written 
a  little  over  three  months  previous  to  his  death,  and 
the  second  number  of  the  newly  christened  Century 
was  the  one  that  announced  that  "Finis"  had  been 
written  at  the  end  of  Dr.  Holland's  career,  and  con- 
tained in  lieu  of  the  familiar  "  Topics  of  the  Time  " 
his  obituary  notice.* 

The  plans  of  Sci^ibners  Monthly  were  matured 
during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1870,  the  first 
number  appearing  in  November.  In  order  to 
place  the  magazine  on  an  independent  financial 
basis,  and  at  the  same  time  retain  the  benefit  which 
came  from  a  connection  with  the  publishing  house, 

*  The  portion  of  the  first  edition  that  goes  to  foreign  lands 
was  already  printed  and  on  its  way  when  he  died,  October 
12,  1881. 


80  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

a  stock  company  was  organized  under  the  name  of 
Scribner  &  Co.,  the  parties  to  the  plan  becoming 
the  stockholders. 

If  Dr.  Johnson  were  moralizing  on  the  situation 
he  would  exclaim  :  "Alas  for  the  vanity  of  human 
expectations !  "  for  in  less  that  a  year  from  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  first  number  the  greatest  of  all 
circumstances  that  possibly  could,  did  occur,  in  the 
untimely  death  of  Mr.  Scribner,  as  his  charming- 
personality  was  the  focus  of  crystallization  around 
which  all  the  other  elements  arranged  themselves. 
His  sons  succeeded  to  his  pecuniary  interests,  and 
it  was  a  tribute  to  the  power  of  a  noble  name  that, 
though  he  was  dead,  the  magazine  should  still  bear 
that  name  after  having  been  carried  to  an  almost 
unprecedented  success  by  other  hands  than  his.  In 
the  first  number  Dr.  Holland  said:  "The  privilege 
of  selecting  this  title  has  been  fraught  with  rare 
pleasure  to  the  editor,  for  it  has  furnished  to  him 
the  opportunity  to  honor  one  of  the  strongest  per- 
sonal friendships  of  his  life,  and  to  give  befitting 
recognition  to  a  name  that,  as  the  head  of  a  large 
publishing  house,  has  been  associated  for  many 
years  with  what  is  purest  and  best  in  American 
literature.  The  magazine  needs  no  higher  aim  than 
to  be  worthy  of  the  name  it  bears,  and  can  achieve 
no  better  honor  than  to  do  its  part  to  maintain  the 
position  which  the  house  represented  by  it  holds 


SUCCESS    OF   SCRIBNEK'S   MONTHLY         81 

before  the  Christian  people  °f  this  country." 
Scribners  Monthly  absorbed  Hours  at  Home,  Put- 
nam's, and  the  Riverside,  ''It  started,"  says  Dr.  Hol- 
land, "  without  a  subscriber,  but  it  is  remarkable  in 
reviewing  its  career  that  it  never  printed  or  sold 
less  than  forty  thousand  copies  a  month.  The 
highest  task  we  set  ourselves  in  those  early  days 
was  to  reach  an  edition  of  one  hundred  thousand 
copies — a  number  now  (1881)  largely  surpassed. 
That  this  success  has  been  a  surprise  to  the  publish- 
ing fraternity  is  undoubtedly  true  ;  that  two  men, 
utterly  unused  to  the  business,  should  succeed  from 
the  first  in  so  difficult  a  field,  is,  in  the  retrospect, 
a  surprise  to  themselves." 

Dr.  Holland  was  accustomed  to  say  of  his  life  and 
the  different  positions  he  had  filled,  that  he  never 
had  fitted  himself  beforehand  for  them  ;  that  he 
stepped  in,  and  then  worked  with  all  his  power  to 
adapt  himself  to  the  place  in  which  he  found  him- 
self, and,  stepping  from  the  country  newspaper  to  a 
position  here  at  Scribner's,  the  editorial  chair  of  a 
magazine  that  was  soon  to  achieve  an  international 
reputation  was  no  exception  ;  but  in  reviewing  its 
evolution  he  said  :  "  Of  the  editorial  management  of 
Seribner,  I  have  nothing  to  say  except  that  it  has 
been  conscientiously  and  industriously  performed, 
and  that  I  have  had  a  corps  of  able  and  enthusiastic 
assistants,  who  have  given  themselves  to  the  work  as 
6 


82  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

if  the  magazine,  indeed,  were  all  their  own."  In 
weighing  the  value  of  the  various  elements  that  had 
built  up  the  wonderful  success  he  was  perfectly  just, 
and  could  he  have  known  that  four  months  later  he 
was  to  die,  his  expressions  of  appreciation  could  not 
have  been  more  deliberate  and  accurate.  He  did 
not  claim  the  highest  place  for  its  literary  contents, 
but  said,  "  the  success  was  owing  to  the  superb  en- 
gravings, and  the  era  it  had  introduced  of  improved 
illustrated  art."  Everybody  does  not  know  how  the 
pace  set  by  the  Scribner  spurred  other  magazines 
to  new  endeavors,  and  led  the  way  to  rich  monthly 
feasts,  set  before  the  public  in  pictures  of  all  imag- 
inable things  in  the  skies  and  the  air,  in  the  earth 
and  in  the  waters  under  the  earth.  Dr.  Holland  be- 
stowed the  praise  where  it  was  deserved  :  "  This 
feature  of  our  work  is  attributable  to  Mr.  R.  W. 
Gilder  and  to  Mr.  A.  W.  Drake — the  former  the 
office  editor,  and  the  latter  superintendent  of  the 
illustrative  department.  Mr.  Smith  and  I,  any 
further  than  we  have  stood  behind  these  men  with 
encouragement  and  money,  deserve  no  credit  for 
the  marvellous  development  that  has  been  made  in 
illustration.  Perhaps  this  is  not  quite  true,  for  Mr. 
Smith  was  the  first  to  insist  on  the  experiment  of 
printing  the  illustrated  forms  on  dry  paper.  This 
has  had  much  to  do  with  the  success  of  our  cuts, 
and  the  Scribner's  Monthly  enjoyed  a  practical  mo- 


HIS   VIRTUAL   VALEDICTORY  83 

nopoly  of  this  mode  of  cut-printing  for  years.  The 
effects  achieved  in  this  way  excited  great  curiosity, 
both  in  this  country  and  in  England.  Mr.  Smith 
may,  therefore,  legitimately  claim  to  have  revolution- 
ized the  cut-printing  of  the  world  ;  and  it  is  an- 
other illustration  of  the  fact  that  reforms  are  rarely 
made  in  their  own  art  by  routine  men.  It  takes  a 
mechanic  to  invent  an  agricultural  machine  ;  and 
a  lawyer  turned  man  of  business  to  discover  that 
damp  paper  is  not  the  best  for  printing  cuts  on." 

He  then  enters  into  an  explanation  of  the  business 
arrangements  that  were  to  control  the  magazine  in 
future — he  had  now  ceased  to  be  a  proprietor  in  the 
magazine — and  events  soon  proved  the  wisdom  of 
the  action  then  taken,  and  the  closing  sentence  of 
what  he  wrote  proved  to  be  his  valedictory  as  to  his 
connection  with  the  magazine,  for  when  he  went,  it 
was  with  no  word  of  farewell,  but  with  the  ink  still 
wet  on  a  "  Topic  of  the  Time  "  lying  unfinished  on 
his  desk.  His  near  friends  all  knew  that  he  lived 
with  a  sword  suspended  above  his  head,  in  the  form 
of  incurable  heart  disease.  His  own  medical  knowl- 
edge prevented  his  indulging  in  those  "illusions 
of  hope  "  that  do  so  much  to  prolong  life  in  many 
cases  ;  but  all  the  same  he  "  marched  breast  for- 
ward," doing  his  daily  task  as  faithfully  as  ever. 
He  said  :  "With  the  burden  of  business  responsibil- 
ities lifted  from  my  shoulders,  I  hope  to  find  my 


84  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

Land  more  easily  at  work  with  my  pen,  and  trust 
that  for  many  years  I  may  hold  the  relation  to  the 
great  reading  world  which  this  editorial  position 
gives  me.  I  risked  in  this  business  all  the  reputa- 
tion and  all  the  money  I  had  made,  and  it  is  a  great 
satisfaction  that  I  did  not  miscalculate  the  resources 
of  my  business  associate  or  my  own." 

In  his  first  "Topic  of  the  Time  "  he  says  :  "The 
feature  of  illustrations  has  been  adopted  to  meet 
a  thoroughly  pronounced  popular  demand  for  the 
pictorial  representation  of  life  and  truth,  and  in  the 
well-assured  belief  that  there  is  no  person,  young  or 
old,  learned  or  illiterate,  to  whom  it  will  be  unwel- 
come. With  this  popular  auxiliary  we  shall  try  to 
make  a  magazine  that  is  intelligent  on  all  living 
questions  of  morals  and  society,  and  to  present 
something  in  every  number  that  will  interest  and 
instruct  every  member  of  every  family  into  which  it 
shall  have  the  good  fortune  to  find  its  way." 

Could  his  mother,  who  had  never  been  quite  rec- 
onciled to  his  not  being  a  minister,  have  seen  him 
installed  in  this  lay  pulpit  from  which  forty  thou- 
sand copies  went  out  in  the  first  number,  and  each 
of  which,  it  is  fair  to  reckon,  was  read  by  at  least 
five  persons,  she  might  have  been  made  to  realize 
that  God  had  led  him  to  being  a  preacher  in  his  own 
way — the  way  for  this  bustling  but  reading  nine- 
teenth century. 


CHAPTER  Vin. 

Robert  Collyer  on  the  Success  of  Scribnefs  Monthly,  and  the 
quality  of  "  Topics  of  the  Time  " — First  Symptoms  of 
Heart  Disease  —  Character  of  his  Editorial  Contribu- 
tions— Lessons  from  the  Deaths  of  Fisk  and  Tweed — 
The  Revised  Version  of  the  Bible — Dogmatic  Theology. 

Rev.  Robert  Collyer  was  at  this  time  living  in 
Chicago,  and  saw  how  the  magazine  "exactly  hit'* 
that  city  of  young,  live,  and  practical  men,  and  he 
was  also  travelling  about  over  wide  reaches  of  our 
country  lecturing,  and  came  into  close  contact  with 
the  masses  of  upright  and  sturdy  people  who  make 
up  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  land — and  wherever 
he  goes  he  finds  out  what  the  people  read.  He 
says,  speaking  of  its  editor  :  "  Nobody  else  could 
have  built  up  the  Scribner  as  he  did,  making  it  fill 
a  place  uniquely  adapted  to  the  great  mass  of  the 
American  people.  He  * preached'  constantly,  not 
because  he  said  to  himself  '  Go  to  now,  let  us  dis- 
course on  ethics  and  morals,'  but  simply  because 
he  poured  out  what  was  in  his  heart ;  he  was  a 
power  in  the  land,  and  when  you  read  an  article 
of  his  it  led  you  onward  and  upward  toward  the 


86  JOSIAII    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

best  you  were  capable  of.  No  other  man  in  this 
country  could  so  touch  the  daily  lives  of  the  prac- 
tical people — the  great  company  of  those  who  not 
only  constitute  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  land  but 
its  influential  mind  and  heart  as  well." 

Some  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  maga- 
zine Dr.  Collyer  himself  came  to  New  York  to  live, 
and  soon  became  a  valued  friend  and  visitor  to  Dr. 
Holland's  house.  He  says:  "Nothing  struck  a 
stranger  more  than  the  beautiful  eagerness  of  the 
man  to  be  about  the  work  God  had  set  him  to  do  " 
— and  it  was  a  great  work  he  did  in  those  "  Topics 
of  the  Time."  No  less  than  four  hundred  of  them 
did  he  write,  and  among  them  are  many  pungent 
sermonettes,  which  being  founded  on  the  eternal 
verities  are  just  as  well  adapted  to  the  case  in  this 
sinning  and  mistaking  world  to-day  as  ever ;  but 
many  of  the  most  forcible  and  valuable  ones  at 
the  time  were  called  out  by  events  of  the  day,  the 
phases  of  feeling  which  were  produced  by  the 
events,  no  matter  how  absorbing  at  the  moment,  are 
past  and  forgotten,  and  reading  them  now  is  like 
looking  at  the  sunset  clouds,  after  the  sun  that  has 
filled  them  with  rosy  and  purple  lights  has  gone  be- 
low the  horizon — the  form  is  there,  but  the  glow  is 
gone.  When  John  Leech  died  he  left  hundreds  of 
the  original  cartoons  of  those  pictures  for  Punch 
that  had  set  the  whole  world  laughing  in  their  time, 


MRS.    BURNETT   AND   MR.    CABLE  87 

and  art  lovers  thought  they  represented  a  fortune 
for  his  family,  but  when  brought  into  the  auction- 
room  it  turned  out  that  some  of  them  which  had 
been  most  triumphant  in  their  day  fell  perfectly  flat ; 
very  intelligent  people  couldn't  even  recall  the  cir- 
cumstances that  had  been,  as  it  were,  photographed 
in  caustic  and  aqua-fortis,  and  the  sale  was  a  great 
failure. 

Of  course  Dr.  Holland  spared  no  pains  to  make 
his  magazine  interesting  and  popular,  and  more  than 
once  in  the  course  of  his  experience  it  was  given  him 
to  know  that  most  exquisite  of  editorial  pleasures — 
the  discovery  of  a  new  star  in  the  firmament  of  ge- 
nius— as  George  William  Curtis  has  told  us,  the  edi- 
tor lives  in  a  state  of  perpetual  expectation  that  some 
writer  of  an  altogether  new  and  transcendent  quality 
is  going  to  bring  his  finished  product  to  his  own  par- 
ticular magazine  ;  two  of  Dr.  Holland's  notable  finds 
being  Mrs.  Burnett  and  George  W.  Cable.  The 
beautiful  Brightwood  home  in  Springfield,  of  course, 
had  to  be  given  up — and  not  without  many  a  pang 
did  the  transfer  to  the  city  accomplish  itself.  An  op- 
portunity offered  to  buy  a  house,  not  yet  completed, 
in  Park  Avenue,  and  of  course  it  could  be  finished 
and  decorated  just  to  the  fancy  of  the  occupant,  and 
certainly  a  most  attractive  home  it  was,  and  thither 
came  many  of  the  gifted,  not  only  among  the  writers 
of  our  own  land,  but  from  over  the  sea,  to  arrange 


OO  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

for  the  publication  of  this  or  that  promising  article, 
and  the  gatherings  of  the  many  "  contributors,"  and 
others  of  the  literary  and  artistic  people  of  New 
York  that  it  was  Dr.  Holland's  delight  to  invite  to 
stated  "receptions,"  will  long  be  remembered  by 
those  who  were  so  happy  as  to  be  part  of  them.  In 
that  home  Dr.  Holland  drank  deep  of  the  cup  of 
happiness.  He  continued  to  lecture  occasionally, 
the  escape  from  the  city  to  more  sparsely  peopled 
regions  being  often  a  grateful  change — and  then, 
about  four  years  before  his  death,  came  an  attack  of 
angina — not  very  severe,  but  enough  to  prove  that 
mischief  was  already  at  work,  and  that  thenceforth 
the  man  who  had  been  capable  of  no  end  of  work 
and  endurance  of  hardship  must  walk  cautiously, 
and,  as  Dr.  Holmes  says,  "shade  the  lamp  of  life 
with  the  hand."  To  one  friend  he  said  at  this  time, 
"I've  had  my  death-warrant  read.  You  know  the 
doctors  tell  me  that  if  I  should  see  my  own  house  on 
fire  I  must  not  run  one  step."  Without  disturbing 
his  family  he  quietly  and  at  once  put  his  business 
affairs  in  such  order  that  instant  death  would  not 
find  him  unprepared  in  that  regard,  and  while  his 
knowledge  of  medicine  taught  him  that  his  was  an 
ever  progressive  disease,  he  had  the  plank  of  hope, 
supplied  by  the  fact  that  the  progress  is  often  very 
slow,  to  cling  to  still.  The  calm  courage  with  which 
he  lived  through  those  four  industrious  and  fruitful 


Q  JS 
O  o 
O     X 

t-  Q 
X 

C5  ^ 

cc  +. 

co  — 

3 
CQ 


TEMPERANCE   VIEWS  89 

years  came  about  as  near  to  the  moral  sublime  as  it 
is  ever  given  to  mortals  to  exhibit  or  to  witness.  It 
might  be  supposed  that  this  living  face  to  face  with 
death  would  project  a  sombre  shade  into  his  writ- 
ings, but  a  sense  of  moral  responsibility  was  the 
great  abiding  element  of  his  life,  and  his  inmost 
conviction  was  that  the  right  living  of  the  "  life  that 
now  is  "  makes  the  best  preparation  for  that  which 
is  to  come — be  it  nearer  or  more  distant — so  that 
no  intimation  of  added  solemnity  can  anywhere  be 
found. 

In  the  very  first  volume  of  the  magazine  we  find 
him  treating,  among  other  things,  of  "A  Growing 
Vice  of  Business,"  "Professional  Morality,"  "The 
Temperance  Question  and  the  Press."  He  was  un- 
compromising on  this  question,  and  held  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  press  to  teach  temperance.  He 
well  knew  that  he  would  be  called  a  "prig,"  and 
"  righteous  overmuch,"  but  it  did  not  deter  him  from 
giving  fall  expression  to  his  convictions,  which  had 
been  deepened  in  those  wine-growing  countries  that 
we  have  sometimes  been  told  hold  a  perpetual  pro- 
plrylactic  against  drunkenness  in  the  constant  uni- 
versal use  of  wine.  His  observations  convinced  him 
of  the  fallacy  of  this  notion,  and  even  if  his  pre- 
conceived ideas  had  proved  true  there,  he  was  con- 
vinced that  there  was  a  radical  climatic  difference  in 
the  two  continents,  and  said  :  "  Our  sparkling,  sunny 


90  JOSIAII    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

atmospliere,  and  the  myriad  incentives  to  hope  and 
enterprise  in  our  circumstances  are  stimulants  of 
God's  own  appointment  for  the  American  people. 
This  pouring  down  of  intoxicating  liquors  is  ten 
thousand  times  worse  than  waste — it  is  essential 
sacrilege.  This  straining  of  the  nerves,  this  heat- 
ing of  the  blood,  this  stimulation  or  stupefaction  of 
the  mind,  this  imposition  of  cruel  burdens  upon  the 
digestive  organs,  is  a  foul  wrong  upon  Nature. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  valuable  lives  are  sacrificed 
every  year  to  this  Moloch  of  strong  drink.  The 
crime,  the  beggary,  the  disgrace,  the  sorrow,  the 
disappointment,  the  disaster,  the  sickness,  the  death, 
that  have  flowed  in  one  uninterrupted  stream  from 
the  bottle  and  the  barrel,  throughout  the  length  of 
the  land,  are  enough  to  make  all  thinking  and  manly 
men  curse  their  source  and  swear  eternal  enmity  to 
it.  ...  O  Heaven  !  for  one  generation  of  clean 
and  unpolluted  men  ;  men  whose  veins  are  not  fed 
with  fire  ;  .  .  .  men  who  do  not  stumble  upon 
the  rock  of  apoplexy  at  mid  age,  or  go  blindly  grop- 
ing and  staggering  down  into  a  drunkard's  grave, 
but  who  can  sit  and  look  upon  the  faces  of  their 
grandchildren  with  eyes  undimmed  and  hearts  un- 
cankered.  Such  a  generation  as  this  is  possible  in 
America  ;  and  to  produce  such  a  generation  as  this 
the  persistent,  conscientious  work  of  the  public  press 
is  entirely  competent  as  an  instrumentality.     The 


THE   MORAL    OF   FISK'S   CAREER  91 

jiress  can  do  what  it  will ;  and  if  it  will  faithfully  do 
its  duty  Maine  laws  will  come  to  be  things  unthought 
of,  and  temperance  reformers  and  temperance  or- 
ganizations will  become  extinct." 

A  little  later  the  murder  of  James  Fisk,  Jr.,  re- 
garded as  a  martyrdom  by  his  admirers,  kindled  a 
sort  of  glamour  about  a  career  essentially  abhorrent 
to  the  moral  sense,  and  young  men  talked  as  if  they 
thought  the  violent  and  untimely  end  had  in  some 
way  atoned  for  the  corrupt  and  godless  life.  He 
cautioned  his  readers  against  the  feeling  that  Fisk 
was  any  better  man  because  he  had  been  killed,  and 
said,  "No  man  ever  died  a  more  natural  death  than 
James  Fisk,  Jr.,  excepting  perhaps  Judas  Iscariot. 
.  .  .  When  a  man  pushes  his  personality  so  far  to 
the  front  of  aggressive  and  impertinent  schemes  of 
iniquity  as  Fisk  did,  it  is  the  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world  for  him  to  run  against  something  that 
will  hurt  him,  for  dangers  stand  thick  as  malice  and 
revenge  can  plant  them  in  the  path  of  godlessness 
and  brutality.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  a  pretty 
universal  execration  of  this  man's  memory  has  been 
saved  to  him  through  the  bloody  mercy  of  a  mur- 
derer ;  .  .  .  but  Fisk  is  certainly  none  the  bet- 
ter for  having  been  killed.  He  was  a  bad  man — 
bold  and  shameless  and  vulgar  in  his  badness — 
with  whom  no  gentleman  could  come  in  contact 
without  a  sense  of  degradation.     .     .     ."    In  the 


92  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

same  "  Topic  "  of  "  Easy  Lessons  from  Hard  Lives  " 
he  referred  to  the  downfall  of  Tweed  and  said  :  "  Let 
every  man  who  wields  a  pen  or  has  an  audience  with 
the  public  do  what  he  can  to  counteract  the  poison- 
ous effects  of  these  lives  on  the  young,  by  calling 
attention  to  the  fact  that  these  men  have  simply 
met  the  fate  of  eminent  rascality.  Honesty  is  the 
best  policy.  Virtue  does  pay.  Purity  is  profitable. 
Truthfulness  and  trustworthiness  are  infinitely  bet- 
ter than  basely  won  gold.  A  good  conscience  is  a 
choicer  possession  than  power.  When  those  men 
were  dazzling  the  multitude  with  their  shows  and 
splendors  they  knew  that  the  world  they  lived  in 
was  unsubstantial ;  and  we  have  no  question  that 
they  expected  and  constantly  dreaded  the  day  of 
discovery  and  retribution." 

In  the  very  last  magazine  that  contaiued  the 
"  Topics,"  he  was  recommending  courses  of  instruc- 
tion in  political  economy  in  our  colleges,  and  com- 
menting on  "Literary  Eccentricity,"  so  that  we 
know  he  did  not  feel  the  shadow  of  death  although 
he  knew  it  touched  him. 

In  looking  back  through  these  "Topics,"  it  is  in- 
teresting to  note  how  much  in  advance  of  his  time  he 
was  on  the  questions  that  are  agitating  the  profess- 
edly Christian  people  of  the  land,  although  he  did 
not  use  the  peculiar  jargon  that  at  present  smites 
our  ears,  of  "inerrancy,"  "higher  criticism,"  "pre- 


LIBERAL   VIEW    OF   THE    BIBLE  93 

terition,"  and  the  like.  It  may  be  said  that  lie  had 
thought  clear  through  these  questions  for  himself, 
and  had  come  to  solid  conclusions ;  conclusions  that 
no  amount  of  ridicule  or  obloquy  could  induce  him 
to  forsake,  and  conclusions  that  he  would  not  desist 
from  proclaiming  with  voice  and  with  pen.  He  is 
writing  of  the  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, just  then  completed,  and  of  which  enormous 
numbers  had  been  sold  in  England,  notwithstand- 
ing which  it  was  said  that  it  was  making  little 
headway  among  the  people.  He  thought  it  very 
difficult  to  learn  whether  this  last  statement  was 
really  true,  but  he  said  :  "There  are  several  classes 
which  will  naturally  oppose  the  reception  of  the  re- 
vision, both  in  this  country  and  in  England,  and  it 
is  well  to  take  account  of  them.  The  conservative 
naturally  dislikes  change  and  innovation.  It  does 
not  matter  from  what  quarter  change  may  come,  nor 
to  what  it  may  relate,  he  will  oppose  it ;  this  class 
will  oppose  the  revision  as  a  matter  of  course. 
They  prefer  their  truth  in  the  old  form,  and  the  new 
form  will  be  offensive  to  them.  .  .  .  There  is 
a  class  of  ignorant  people  to  whom  the  King  James 
version  of  the  Bible  is  the  inspired  word  of  God  in 
all  its  language.  They  regard  a  revision  as  a  tam- 
pering with  the  sacred  text,  and  as  an  essential  prof- 
anation. The  forms  of  language  in  which  sacred 
truth  has   been    presented   to   them  are   quite   as 


94  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

sacred  as  the  truth  itself.  These  people  cannot  be 
reasoned  with  because  they  do  not  know  enough  to 
use  their  reason.  To  this  class  belonged  the  big- 
oted fool  wTho  declared  that  the  new  revision  would 
make  more  infidels  than  all  the  Bob  Ingersolls  in 
the  world,  simply  by  its  admissions  that  there  had 
been  some  mistakes  in  the  English  Bible  hitherto 
preached  to  the  world.  The  unchristian  dishonesty 
of  such  an  attitude  as  this  is  only  equalled  by  its 
foolishness.  We  fear  that  there  is  a  leaven  of  this 
kind  of  dishonesty  pretty  widely  scattered  through- 
out the  church — a  feeling,  or  a  fear,  at  least,  that 
the  exact  truth  in  a  new  revision  will  remove  some 
of  the  props  from  under  old  dogmas  that  had  be- 
come precious,  or  that  are  regarded  as  fundamental 
in  their  accepted  schemes  of  belief.  Some  of  these 
people  make  a  sort  of  fetich  of  the  Bible.  They 
carry  it  in  their  pockets  as  a  sort  of  charm.  No 
heathen  ever  gave  the  objects  of  his  worship  more 
superstitious  reverence  than  these  ignorant  Chris- 
tians do  the  Bible.  Of  course  they  would  oppose 
any  change  in  it. 

" .  .  .  It  is  impossible  that  with  the  great  ad- 
vance of  knowledge  relating  to  the  original  Greek 
text  that  has  been  made  since  the  King  James 
version,  .  .  .  the  new  revision  should  not  be 
better  than  the  old.  This  should  settle  the  question 
of  universal  acceptance  ;  it  is  the  best  thing  we  have. 


"dogmatic  theology"  95 

"  We  should  all  remember  that  there  is  only  one 
thing  sacred  about  the  Bible,  viz.,  the  truth  that  is 
in  it.  The  language  is  the  vehicle  in  or  through 
which  the  truth  is  conveyed  to  our  minds,  and  that 
version  is  best  which  most  faithfully  and  forcibly 
conveys  that  truth.  It  would  be  a  real  benefit  to 
Christendom  to  break  up  the  idea  that  there  is  any- 
thing sacred  and  not  to  be  touched  in  the  language 
of  the  old  English  Bible,  to  kill  out  the  reverence 
for  the  old  forms  in  which  truth  has  been  con- 
veyed." That  was  written  six  years  before  "  Robert 
Elsmere"  took  his  devastating  iconoclasm  among 
the  English-speaking  peoples  of  the  world. 

Dr.  Holland  gave  his  estimate  of  that  "  Dogmatic 
Theology  "  that  has  blighted  the  happiness  out  of 
thousands  of  innocent  lives,  in  a  "Topic"  on  "Preach- 
ers and  Preaching  " — he  is  talking  of  the  power  of 
the  affirmative,  and  says,  "A  man  who  spends  his 
days  in  arresting  and  knocking  down  lies  and  liars 
will  have  no  time  left  for  speaking  the  truth.  .  .  . 
The  author  of  Christianity  understood  this  matter. 
His  system  of  religion  was  to  be  preached,  pro- 
claimed, promulgated.  Its  friends  were  not  to  win 
their  triumphs  by  denying  the  denials  of  infidelity, 
but  by  persistently  affirming,  explaining,  and  ap- 
plying the  truth.  .  .  .  The  world  has  never 
discovered  anything  nutritious  in  a  negation,  and 
the  men  of  faith  and  conviction  will  always  find  a 


96  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

multitude  eager  for  the  food  they  bear.  Men  will 
continue  to  drink  from  the  brooks  and  refuse  to 
eat  the  stones  that  obstruct  them.  ...  So  the 
modern  preacher  preaches  more  and  argues  less. 
He  declares,  promulgates,  explains,  advises,  exhorts, 
appeals.  He  does  more  than  this.  Instead  of  re- 
garding Christianity  solely  as  a  scheme  of  belief 
and  faith,  and  thus  becoming  the  narrow  expounder 
of  a  creed,  he  broadens  into  a  critic  and  cultivator 
of  human  motive  and  character.  We  do  not  assert 
that  modern  preaching  is  entirely  released  from  its 
old  narrowness.  There  are  still  too  many  who  heat 
over  the  old  broth  and  ladle  it  out  in  the  old  way 
which  they  learned  in  the  seminary.  The  '  preach- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ '  is  still,  to  multitudes,  the 
preaching  of  a  scheme  of  religion,  tbe  explanation 
of  a  plan,  the  promulgation  of  dogmata.  .  .  . 
The  man  who  preaches  Christ  the  most  effectively 
and  acceptably  to-day  is  he  who  tries  all  motive 
and  character  and  life  by  the  divine  standard, 
who  applies  the  divine  life  to  the  e very-day  life 
of  the  world,  and  whose  grand  endeavor  is  not  so 
much  to  save  men  as  to  make  them  worth  saving. 
He  denounces  wrong  in  public  and  private  life  ;  he 
exposes  and  reproves  the  sins  of  society  ;  he  ap- 
plies and  urges  the  motives  to  purity,  sobriety, 
honesty,  charity,  and  good  neighborhood  ;  he  shows 
men  to  themselves  ;  and  then  shows  them  the  mode 


SOURCES   OF  PERSONAL   INFLUENCE       97 

by  which  they  may  correct  themselves.  In  all  this 
he  meets  with  wonderful  acceptance,  and,  most 
frequently,  in  direct  proportion  to  his  faithful- 
ness. .  .  .  The  world  has  come  to  the  com- 
prehension of  the  fact  that,  after  all  that  may  be 
said  of  dogmatic  Christianity,  character  is  the  final 
result  at  which  its  author  aimed.  .  .  .  The 
Christianity  which  thinks  more  of  soundness  of 
belief  than  soundness  of  character  is  the  meanest 
sort  of  Christianity,  and  belongs  to  an  old  and  out- 
grown time." 

What  gave  Dr.  Holland  his  unique  power  to 
really  move  men  and  influence  their  lives,  so  that 
all  over  the  land  to-day  there  are  men  who  are  in 
the  thick  of  the  fight  of  life  who  say,  "  I  owe  that 
man  a  great  debt,"  "His  words  changed  my  views 
of  life,"  "He  saved  me  from  making  a  great  mis- 
take," "I  do  not  know  where  I  should  have  landed 
but  for  him,"  and  the  like  ?  First,  it  was  his 
peculiar  literary  style,  which  was  attractive  to  great 
numbers  of  people  ;  the  same  truths  that  he  enun- 
ciated if  put  into  different  words,  in  a  different  way, 
would  have  made  no  such  impression.  The  analysis 
of  a  literary  style  is  like  attempting  to  describe  the 
pleasure  of  gazing  on  a  beautiful  face  ;  you  feel  the 
charm,  but  it  is  too  elusive  to  be  put  into  words. 
Critics  may  wrangle  eternally  about  this  redun- 
dancy and  that  deficiency,  about  how  much  better  it 
7 


98  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

would  have  been  to  express  the  idea  in  their  way, 
and  what  a  wreck  and  failure  the  writer  has  made 
of  it  all ;  but  if  he  is  endowed  with  the  divine  gift 
of  uttering  truths  in  a  way  that  interests  and  pleases 
his  public,  he  can  afford  to  let  the  critics  keep  on 
wrangling,  and  hold  serenely  on  his  way,  sure  that 
he  will  be  loved  and  remembered  after  the  public 
has  ceased  to  recall  that  the  critic  ever  lived. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

The  Elements  of  Dr.  Holland's  Power— His  Religions  Ex- 
perience— Account  of  Judge  Underhill — Spiritual  Ex- 
perience at  Richmond — Church  Work  at  Springfield. 

If  asked  to  coin  a  title  for  Dr.  Holland  in  reference 
to  the  work  God  had  laid  out  for  him,  it  would  read, 
11  The  Great  Apostle  to  the  Multitudes  of  Intelligent 
Americans  who  have  Missed  a  College  Education." 
There  was  not  the  least  flavor  of  bookishness  in  his 
writings,  they  were  utterly  devoid  of  the  odor  of 
the  midnight  lamp,  yet  President  Porter,  of  Yale, 
said,  "  He  always  made  a  facile  use  of  idiomatic  and 
pure  English,"  and  Dr.  Bevan,  his  accomplished 
New  York  pastor,  said  :  "  In  plain  nervous  speech, 
with  a  directness  and  strength  of  diction  which  has 
few  equals  among  the  current  writers  of  the  age, 
he  rebuked  excesses  and  abuses  of  every  kind." 
On  the  Fourth  of  July,  in  the  year  of  Daniel  Web- 
ster's graduation,  he  delivered  a  patriotic  address  in 
Hanover,  N.  H.,  full  of  the  longest  and  most  sono- 
rous words  that  his  classical  synonym-book  could 
supply ,  of  it  he  afterward  said  "  it  was  utterly 
highfalutin."     Soon  after,  he  went  to  Portsmouth 


100  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

to  hear  Jeremiah  Mason  endeavor  to  convince  a 
jury  of  twelve  New  Hampshire  farmers,  in  a  diffi- 
cult and  complicated  case.  Said  he,  "I  saw  at  once 
that  if  I  was  to  get  my  living  by  convincing  such 
juries  I  must  change  my  style,"  and  he  did,  and 
his  speeches  are  full  of  those  short,  Saxon,  forceful 
words,  that  look  simple  and  innocent  but  can  deal 
blows  like  a  hammer. 

Our  Saviour  chose  fishermen  of  Galilee  to  win  to 
him  the  unlettered  masses  of  his  time,  who  prob- 
ably had  no  knowledge  whatever  of  books — probably 
not  even  of  the  three  Rs. — and  it  really  was  a  posi- 
tive advantage  for  the  work  he  had  to  do  that  Dr. 
Holland  was  debarred  from  obtaining  an  "Educa- 
tion," so  called,  with  the  big  E,  in  his  day.  His  read- 
ers didn't  suddenly  run  across  references  to  books 
or  classical  allusions  which  took  it  for  granted  that 
they  were  familiar  with  vast  provinces  of  learning, 
the  existence  of  which  is  here  first  unveiled  to 
them,  and  which  produce  a  sense  of  missed  oppor- 
tunity and  discouragement  that  to  be  appreciated 
needs  to  be  felt.  Although  Dr.  Holland  had  read 
the  English  poets  with  just  discrimination,  a  true 
instinct  kept  him  from  quoting  them,  and  from 
interlarding  his  work  with  foreign  pleases  and 
words — he  followed  the  maxim,  "  Look  into  thine 
own  heart  and  write." 

Ten  years  before  he  went  to  Europe  President 


HIS   NEW   ENGLANDISM  101 

Porter  had  urged  liim  to  go  abroad  and  reside,  to 
study  and  observe  and  enlarge  his  knowledge  of 
men  and  his  ideas.  He  had  answered  that  he  was 
afraid  he  should  lose  the  hold  he  had  upon  what  he 
deemed  his  strength,  viz.,  his  New  England  blood, 
and  his  familiarity  with  the  convictions  and  man- 
ners and  faith  of  his  own  people.  These  he  re- 
garded as  his  capital.  Here  he  felt  that  he  was 
strong,  and  he  "  did  not  care  to  relax  the  energy  of 
these  convictions,  nor  the  tenacity  of  these  associa- 
tions." He  knew  the  secret  of  the  power  that  had 
won  him  his  thousands  of  readers  not  only  in  New 
England,  but  wherever  their  lineal  successors  are 
found  throughout  the  broad  land.  But  where  had 
he  won  that  wealth  of  Christian  wisdom  and  spirit- 
ual insight  and  serene  conviction  that  so  unerr- 
ingly guided  him  to  the  right  side  of  moral  ques- 
tions, and  that  gave  him  the  ability  to  help  and 
comfort  so  many  doubting  and  inquiring  souls  ?  It 
had  been  bought  with  a  price,  in  deep  spiritual  con- 
flict and  suffering. 

And  how  came  he  by  so  many  of  the  ideas  that 
were  called  "  advanced"  forty  years  ago,  but  to-day 
are  accepted  as  established  truths  ?  Where  did  he 
learn  to  sift  out  the  kernel  of  truth  and  cast  aside 
the  hindering  envelope  that  had  shut  it  in,  and 
kept  it  from  springing  up  into  its  natural  and  sym- 
metrical growth  and  fruitage  ? 


102  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

It  is  the  fashion  to  call  this  a  day  of  unbelievers 
and  infidels,  but  was  there  ever  a  time  when  so 
many  earnest  men  and  women  were  asking  "  What 
is  the  truth,"  and  saying  "Who  will  show  us  the 
way?" 

Dr.  Holland  had  fought  over  the  whole  ground 
of  religious  doubt,  inch  by  inch,  and  had  arrived  at 
certain  conclusions  that  for  him  were  inevitable, 
and  at  last  had  had  a  deep  and  true  religious  expe- 
rience. 

Of  course  he  was  the  possessor  of  a  priceless 
inheritance  in  his  early  education,  and  in  the  ex- 
ample of  the  power  of  religion  to  sustain  the  soul 
under  adversity  and  disaster,  in  the  life  of  his 
father,  whose  picture  he  so  graphically  sketched  in 
the  ballad  of  "Old  Daniel  Gray."  The  nature  of 
the  causes  of  the  poverty  that  was  his  early  lot 
are  hinted  at  in  the  sketch  of  Paul  Benedict,  the 
inventor,  in  "  Sevenoaks." 

Between  the  years  1836  and  1840  there  were  a 
number  of  "old-fashioned"  revivals  up  and  down 
the  Connecticut  Valley,  and  Northampton  came  in 
for  her  share  of  what  was  called  "  seasons  of  refresh- 
ment." Any  one  who  is  interested  to  know  how 
these  were  "  worked  up,"  frequently  by  people  who 
believed  they  were  doing  God's  service  thereby,  will 
find  a  highly  sympathetic  picture  of  them  and  their 
effects  in  "Arthur  Bonnicastle  ;"  into  which  it  is  un- 


RELIGIOUS   EXPERIENCE  103 

derstood  there  is  woven  much  of  the  personal  ex- 
perience of  the  author.  Certainly  there  was  much 
that  was  factitious  and  artificial  about  their  inception 
and  conduct,  especially  as  promoted  by  "evangelists" 
brought  in  to  assist  regular  pastors  from  outside. 

To  Dr.  Holland,  with  his  sensitive  imaginative 
nature,  such  a  season  of  gloom  and  terror,  and  sense 
of  the  impending  wrath  of  an  offended  God,  as  was 
the  general  accompaniment  of  what  was  known  as  a 
pentecostal  season,  must  have  been  truly  frightful. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  calmer,  saner  people  deprecat- 
ed them,  both  for  their  present  effects  and  for  the 
spiritual  deadness  that  was  sure  to  ensue  in  the  in- 
evitable reaction  that  followed  the  unnatural  excite- 
ment. At  that  day  no  Christian  mother  could  rest 
till  her  children  were  in  the  church;  it  was  called 
the  "ark  of  safety,"  and  many  entered  it,  giving  as- 
sent to  creeds  that  in  their  youth  and  inexperience 
fliotr  thought  they  believed,  but  to  which  they  had 

uite 
iver- 
)uld 
.-. 

had 
had 
istic 
used 
cold 


104  JOSIAII    GILBERT  HOLLAND 

light  of  calm  reason  lie  had  time  to  think.  It  is 
astonishing  to  see  what  heights  and  depths  of  un- 
warranted mystic  meaning  had  been  wrought  into 
Christ's  simple  "  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me." 
Man}7  joined  churches  under  the  impulse  of  revivals 
who  afterward  suffered  tortures  when  the  excitement 
had  died  out,  lest  in  partaking  of  the  sacrament  they 
were  "eating  and  drinking  unworthily,"  and  a  per- 
son of  vivid  imagination  could  easily  fancy  himself 
"eating  and  drinking  damnation."  They  did  not 
perceive  that  sainthood  and  sanctiiication  are  matters 
of  growth  and  time,  and  nearly  every  town  had  its 
man  or  woman  of  whom  people  said  in  solemn  and 

significant  whispers,  "Mr.  or  Mrs. doesn't  go 

to  the  communion  now,"  and  it  was  understood  to 
mean  either  that  there  had  been  a  terrible  backslid- 
ing or  that  the  person  was  verging  on  insanity,  and 
as  to  the  numbers  who  imagined  they  had  committed 
the  unpardonable  sin,  the  record  is  too  distressing : 
even  saintly  and  devoted  pastors  sometimes  doubt- 
ed if  they  had  "  a  right  to  j>artake  of  those  blessed 
seals."  If  it  is  asked  how  could  people  entertain 
such  extreme  and  unwarranted  notions,  it  must  be 
answered  that  they  did  not  accept  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  its  simplicity  and  directness,  but  tried  to 
believe  in  systems  of  man-invented  theology  founded 
on  it.  A  very  shrewd  observer,  not  of  Yankee  origin, 
has  said  that  New  England  people  could  not  dis- 


SEASON    OF   DOUBT   AND   DISTRESS        105 

criminate  between  what  is  really  in  the  Bible  and 
what  Milton's  "Paradise  Lost"  has  made  them  im- 
agine was  in  it.  Certainly  much  that  was  extraneous 
had  been  added  to  the  original  conception  of  Christ's 
beautiful  memorial  service  before  it  had  been  en- 
dowed with  the  power  to  blast  the  peace  and  hap- 
piness and  blight  the  lives  of  really  saintly  men  and 
women,  and  drive  them  into  insane  asylums. 

Having  attained  his  majority,  Dr.  Holland  entered 
the  office  of  Drs.  Barrett  and  Thompson,  and  his 
youthful  dream  of  becoming  educated  was  coming 
true.  In  the  midst  of  his  happiness  he  had  an  illus- 
tration of  the  occasional  futility  of  the  healing  art, 
and  a  confirmation  of  the  old  tombstone  couplet, 

11  Friends  and  physicians  could  not  save 
This  mortal  body  from  the  grave  ; " 

for  no  treatment  seemed  to  rescue  his  favorite  sister 
from  the  fatal  measles,  nor  the  other  two  from  con- 
sumption, and  henceforth  no  amount  of  Christian 
resignation  could  obliterate  the  sorrow  that  en- 
shrouded the  soul  of  the  affectionate  mother. 

This  accumulation  of  distresses  almost  frenzied 
him.  He  used  to  walk  the  streets  at  night  feeling 
that  "  God  had  forgotten  the  world  " — certainly  he 
was  hidden  from  this  poor,  tempest-tossed  creature, 
who  could  see  no  lights  coming  through  rifts  in  his 
beclouded  sky. 


106  JOSIAll    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

Judge  Henry  B.  Underbill,  of  California,  who 
knew  him  intimately  at  this  "storm  and  stress" 
period  of  his  life,  has  kindly  prepared  a  statement 
as  follows : 

"  I  became  acquainted  with  Josiah  Gilbert  Holland 
at  Northampton,  Mass.,  in  the  early  part  oi  1840. 
He  was  then  a  medical  student  in  the  office  of  Drs. 
Barrett  and  Thompson  while  I  was  preparing  for 
college.  We  sat  at  the  same  table  and  spent  much 
of  our  leisure  time  together.  The  subject  of  relig- 
ion was  often  the  topic  of  our  discourse,  as  we  were 
both  church  members.  His  opinions  seemed  to  me 
unsettled  and  erratic.  He  was  disposed  to  question 
the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures.  I  recollect  that 
on  one  occasion  he  said  that  we  could  not  depend 
upon  the  gospels  as  recording  the  words  of  Christ, 
for  it  would  be  impossible  for  the  disciples  who  were 
his  companions  during  the  three  years  of  his  minis- 
try to  remember  any  considerable  portions  of  what 
they  recorded  as  the  wonderful  words  that  fell  from 
his  lips.  In  reply,  I  called  his  attention  to  the  prom- 
ise of  Christ  as  recorded  in  the  26th  verse  of  the 
fourteenth  .chapter  of  John's  gospel,  that  the  Father 
would  send  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  would  bring  ail 
things  to  their  remembrance  whatsoever  he  had  said 
unto  them.  To  my  surprise  he  said  that  he  had 
never  noticed  that  passage  before,  but  he  acknowl- 
edged that  it  was  a  complete  answer  to  his  objection. 


CORRESPONDENCE   ON    RELIGION  107 

He  was  captious  about  the  efficacy  of  prayer  and 
other  features  of  practical  Christianity,  and  the  im- 
pression grew  upon  me,  notwithstanding  my  admira- 
tion and  love  for  him,  that  he  was  not  a  converted 
man. 

"We  kept  up  a  correspondence  after  I  left  North- 
ampton for  Amherst,  and  he  went  to  Pittsfield  to 
attend  medical  lectures,  and  subsequently  during  his 
residence  as  a  physician  in  Springfield,  and  after- 
ward while  he  was  filling  a  chair  in  a  commercial 
college  in  Richmond,  Va.  At  a  certain  period  dur- 
ing his  residence  in  Richmond  he  surprised  me 
with  a  letter  which  filled  my  heart  with  joy.  It 
was  like  one  of  the  exultant  psalms  of  David.  It 
was  au  exuberant  description  of  the  spiritual  illu- 
mination which  he  had  experienced.  I  regret  very 
much  that  I  did  not  preserve  that  letter.  The 
love  of  God  and  peace  in  the  Lord  Jesus,  through 
the  abiding  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  his 
heart,  ran  through  every  line.  He  was  then  a  hum- 
ble child  at  the  foot  of  the  cross.  No  more  doubts 
about  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  no  more 
cavilling  conceririug  the  plan  of  salvation  through 
the  Divine  Redeemer.  All  the  essentials  were  plain 
to  him. 

"I  met  him  afterward  in  Mississippi,  then  at 
Springfield,  where  he  was  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Sabbath-school,    then   in  New   York,    and   though 


108  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

many  years  bad  intervened,  and  the  results  of  a 
busy  life-work  were  before  the  world  in  the  prod- 
ucts of  his  pen,  his  simple  faith  in  Christ  was  still 
the  couspicuous  feature  of  his  character.  He  was  a 
practical  Christian,  laying  little  or  no  stress  upon  the 
theories  of  the  theologians,  but  zealous  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Christian  graces,  which  are  cata- 
logued in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Second  Epistle  of 
Peter." 

It  was  seven  years  from  the  time  when  Mr.  Un- 
derbill's record  of  the  student-communings  begins, 
to  what  may  be  called  that  spiritual  culmination  in 
Richmond.  During  the  early  part  of  the  time  Dr. 
Holland  had  reached  one  goal  of  his  ambition  in  gain- 
ing his  medical  diploma.  He  had  married  a  deep- 
ly religious  woman,  though  one  who  bad  a  wholly 
different  type  of  mind  from,  his  ;  he  bad  made  the 
unsuccessful  experiments  in  a  profession  for  which 
he  had  no  true  vocation,  and  being  unsuccessful  had 
passed  through  a  most  unpleasant  worldly  "  valley 
of  humiliation,"  and  now,  at  last,  had  emerged  into 
God's  own  light,  and  had  yielded  a  complete  and 
ungrudging  allegiance  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — to 
use  his  own  words,  to  "  the  personal  representative 
of  Jehovah  on  earth."  Some  of  these  wrestlings  with 
himself,  when  the  way  seemed  dark  before  him,  Bun- 
yan  would  have  called  "  the  buffe  tings  of  Satan," 
but  they  may  be  characterized  as  the  questionings 


FAMILY    PRAYERS  109 

of  an  awakened  soul  before  some  of  the  deep  mys- 
teries of  life  and  Providence.  Graphic  descriptions 
of  them  have  found  place  in  the  pages  of  "Kath- 
rina,"  a  book  that  will  have  readers  till  the  New 
England  Puritan  mind  is  sophisticated  into  some- 
thing quite  different  from  itself.  When  he  came 
back  from  Richmond  he  at  once  established  family 
prayers,  and  those  who  had  the  privilege  of  unit- 
ing with  them,  saw  what  a  sincere  act  of  worship  he 
made  them,  that  they  were  his  "  soul's  sincere  de- 
sire, uttered  ;  "  they  learned  what  a  living  and  un- 
faltering faith  Dr.  Holland  had  that  the  God  he  be- 
lieved in  had  the  power  to  impart  right  impulses  to 
the  wavering  and  uncertain  human  soul  halting  be- 
tween two  courses  of  action,  and  that  in  the  day  of 
trouble  there  is  but  one  sure  way  that  leads  out 
into  the  light  beyond  it — to  pray.  ■  In  looking  back 
upon  those  early  days  of  doubt  and  questionings, 
from  a  time  very  near  the  end  of  his  life,  he  confided 
to  Dr.  Bevan  that  he  had  gone  through  them  with  a 
sad  heart ;  and  people  who  flippantly  toss  off  the 
epithets  "infidel,"  "unbeliever,"  "  disorganize^  " 
when  a  man  cannot  take  his  religion  cut  and  dried 
at  second  hands,  and  speak  as  if  the  inquiring  mind 
was  guilty  of  wilful  defiance  of  God's  law,  might 
sometimes  better  spare  their  crude  misjudgments. 

It  was  very  evident  from  Dr.  Holland's  after-his- 
tory, that  during  those  years  of  incertitude  he  had 


110  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

thought  deeply  not  only  on  his  own  personal  expe- 
riences, but  on  religious  questions  generally,  and 
meanwhile  he  strove  to  use  his  powers  and  exert  his 
influence  for  the  building  up  of  God's  kingdom, 
whether  at  peace  in  his  own  mind  or  not,  and  the 
clear  convictions  that  he  arrived  at  eventually,  seem 
to  furnish  an  instance  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise 
that  the  man  who  will  "do "  God's  will  shall  "  know  " 
of  his  doctrine.  In  a  certain  measure  he  blazed  out 
a  new  path,  and  consequently  was  for  many  years 
more  or  less  misunderstood  by  people  whose  good 
opinion  he  would  have  liked,  could  it  have  been  pur- 
chased without  a  sacrifice  of  his  convictions. 

He  connected  himself  with  the  South  Church  in 
Springfield  soon  after  his  marriage,  when  Rev.  No- 
ah Porter,  afterward  President  at  Yale,  was  the  pas- 
tor, and  an  attachment  grew  up  between  them  that 
only  ended  with  Dr.  Holland's  life.  Here  he  had 
a  Bible  class  of  young  men,  and  in  teaching  them 
expressed  what  were  then  called  "liberal"  views, 
the  adjective  generally  being  construed  to  mean 
latitudinarian,  and  he  had  already  caught  some 
glimpses  of  that  latter-day  reformation  in  religious 
teaching  that  was  going  to  replace  assent  to  a 
series  of  theological  dogmas  by  active  religious 
life.  He  probably  made  the  class  interesting.  At 
all  events  it  soon  got  abroad  that  he  was  teaching 
"heresy,"   and   a   meeting   of    deacons   et   al.  was 


HIS   KIXD    OF   ORTHODOXY  111 

called  to  look  into  the  matter  and  remonstrate.  A 
very  small  minority  only  disapproved,  and  his  an- 
swer was  to  read  a  chapter  in  the  New  Testament 
saying,  "  That  is  my  creed,  and  I  must  teach  the 
Scriptures  as  they  seem  to  me  ;  Christ's  theology  is 
the  material  for  me."  He  had  also  intimated  that 
the  class  need  not  pay  too  much  heed  to  the  Old 
Testament.  A  recent  preacher  has  said  :  "  The  con- 
servative forces  of  institutional  religion  have  never 
been  able  to  welcome  new  truth,  or  new  methods  of 
teaching  truth  ;  always  the  worshippers  of  the  past 
have  resisted  the  innovations,  as  heresies,  of  the 
workers  for  the  future."  At  that  date  to  hold  un- 
orthodox views  was  to  forfeit  social  caste,  and  a 
different  type  of  man  would  have  kept  quiet ;  but 
Dr.  Holland  was  too  true  to  his  convictions  to  be 
capable  of  such  a  time-serving  policy  ;  but  he  gave 
up  his  class,  to  their  loss  no  doubt.  Rev.  Mr. 
Buckingham  afterward  became  the  pastor  of  the 
church,  and  in  a  memorial  address  said  :  "  He  fol- 
lowed the  dictates  of  his  heart  rather  thau  the 
teachings  of  any  theological  school,  and  drinking  in 
the  spirit  of  Christ  he  never  was  guilty  of  heresy  ; 
he  adored  and  trusted  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  only 
Saviour  of  men,  and  he  was  always  true  to  such  a 
Christianity,  whether  in  his  Sunday-school  teach- 
ings, or  the  daily  newspaper,  or  monthly  periodical, 
or  in  his  novels  and  poems." 


CHAPTEE  X. 

Church  Connections— Dr.  Gladden' s  Memorial  Sermon — In- 
fluence of  Dr.  Drummond— Formation  of  the  Memorial 
Church — Association  with  the  'k  Brick  Church" — Teach- 
ing Sunday  School  in  Paris — Conversation  with  Mr.  De 
Vries — "  Arthur  Bonnicastle." 

It  was  while  he  was  absent  in  the  South  that  he 
had  passed  through  the  remarkable  illuminating 
spiritual  experience  described  by  Mr.  Underbill,  and 
he  undoubtedly  felt  more  deeply  than  ever  the  ob- 
ligation to  let  his  light  shine.  After  consultation 
with  Dr.  Buckingham  he  decided  to  unite  with  the 
North  Church,  then  young  and  growing — keeping 
step  with  the  rapid  growth  of  Springfield  itself.  He 
said  it  was  a  church  that  he  could  help,  and,  says 
Dr.  Buckingham,  "  In  addition  to  his  faithful  work 
here  in  the  social  and  religious  life  of  the  church, 
he  made  himself  especially  valuable  as  the  leader  of 
the  choir.  You  should  have  seen  him  sing  as  well 
as  heard  him,  to  understand  what  he  meant  by  the 
service  of  song  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  !  His 
noble  mien,  his  reverent  and  exultant  manner  as 
he  carried  the  praises  of  the  congregation  up  to 


HIS   LAY   SEEVICES  113 

heaven  !  The  picture  of  the  choir-boys  is  a  pleasant 
one,  but  commonplace  in  comparison  with  this  mag- 
nificent specimen  of  manhood  and  Christian  ser- 
vice." Dr.  Gladden,  after  alluding  to  a  very  busy 
period  in  his  life,  in  a  memorial  sermon,  iu  speak- 
ing of  his  singing,  said :  "  During  all  this  time  he 
was  also  the  leader  of  the  choir.  I  shall  always  re- 
member him  as  I  heard  his  pure  tenor  voice  in  the 
gallery  of  the  North  Church  in  1859.  He  stood 
there  with  his  hymn-book  level  with  his  eyes  sing- 
ing, 'Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul,'  to  a  beautiful  selec- 
tion. It  was  quite  evident  to  one  who  saw  and  heard 
him  singing  that  it  was  something  more  than  a  per- 
formance, it  was  worship.  His  services  in  connec- 
tion with  this  choir,  his  faithfulness  in  making  long 
journeys,  when  on  his  lecturing  tours,  to  be  at  his 
post  every  Sunday,  have  been  referred  to  in  the 
journals,  and  the  circumstance  was  characteristic 
of  the  man.  It  should  also  be  noted  that  this  was 
wholly  a  labor  of  love  on  his  part  ;  the  parish  made 
an  appropriation  for  music,  but  he  took  none  of  it ; 
what  he  did  was  done  heartily,  as  unto  the  Lord." 

Of  course,  with  his  sensitive  musical  ear  and  his 
fine  voice  he  loved  the  work  ;  but  he  was  no  less 
faithful  in  the  laborious,  difficult,  and  often  thank- 
less position  of  Parish  Committeeman,  and  when  he 
resigned,  in  July,  1856,  to  go  with  a  colony  to  form 
a  new  church  in  a  still  newer  field,  the  parish 
8 


114  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

showed   that   they   appreciated  these   faithful  self- 
sacrificing  services  by  a  cordial  vote  of  thanks. 

During  his  connection  with  that  church  it  had 
fallen  to  his  lot  to  aid  in  the  selection  of  a  pastor, 
and  the  one  that  his  choice  fell  on  was  a  rarely 
gifted  man,  and  there  was  something  in  him  that 
bound  him  most  sympathetically  to  the  heart  of  Dr. 
Holland.  Dr.  Gladden,  who  knew  Dr.  Holland  very 
intimately,  thus  speaks  of  him  and  of  them.  In  a 
memorial  sermon,  preached  in  the  North  Church, 
where  Dr.  Holland  had  been  a  living  force  for  twelve 
years,  he  said:  "In  studying  the  influences  that 
helped  to  shape  his  character,  I  think  we  shall  be 
led  to  put  much  emphasis  on  the  ministrations  of 
this  true  servant  of  God.  Mr.  Drummond  was  a 
minister  quite  out  of  the  common.  He  was  a  seer, 
a  poet,  a  teacher  of  lofty  inspiration,  a  liberal  man 
in  the  best  sense  of  that  word.  Brave,  open-minded, 
full  of  enthusiasm,  the  sermons  that  he  has  left  show 
what  manner  of  man  he  was.  Dr.  Holland  had  al- 
ways been  a  good  writer,  skilful  and  happy  in  his 
way  of  putting  things  ;  but  it  was  not  until  Mr. 
Drummond  became  his  pastor  and  friend  that  his 
writings  began  to  assume  that  lofty  quality,  that  pro- 
phetic tone  wrhich  was  the  secret  of  his  power.  The 
'  Titcomb  Letters  '  were  wTritten  in  1858.  Mr. 
Drummond's  pastorate  began  in  June  of  that  year. 
Of  course  this  element  was  in  the  man,  but  I  am 


VIEWS   OF   CHURCH   MEMBERSHIP        115 

sure  that  the  fire  of  Mr.  Drummond's  inspired  en- 
thusiasm helped  to  bring  it  out ;  and  I  shall  always 
believe  that  through  this  short  ministry  of  James 
Drummond  a  great  moral  quickening  was  given  to 
Dr.  Holland,  and  through  him  to  the  world."  What 
Dr.  Holland's  own  opinion  of  moral  quickenings 
was,  and  of  their  incontestable  power,  will  be  seen 
later  on. 

Dr.  Holland  felt  that  many  more  men  than  are, 
should  be  in  the  church  ;  he  studied  and  thought 
much  over  the  problem  why  so  many  men  whose 
"  walk  and  conversation  "  are  pure  and  upright,  and 
who  certainly  are  not  indifferent  to  the  claims  of 
Christ,  are  still  not  members  of  His  church.  He  felt 
that  a  man's  power  for  good  was  greatly  enhanced 
by  his  being  visibly  enrolled  as  a  soldier  of  the  cross  ; 
he  had  little  sympathy  with  the  notion  that  "  a  good 
man  can  do  just  as  much  good  out  of  the  church  as 
in  it,"  and  he  knew  that  many  men  who  would  will- 
ingly own  Christ  as  the  guide  of  their  lives  were 
deterred  from  publicly  uniting  wTith  any  church 
through  inability  to  give  their  assent  to  certain  state- 
ments in  old  creeds,  which,  however  much  of  vital 
truth  they  may  have  held  for  the  men  who  first  for- 
mulated them,  have  long  since  lost  their  significance 
for  the  men  of  to-day.  He  also  felt  that  non-essen- 
tial forms  of  worship  built  up  needless  barriers  to 
Christian  communion  among  men  who  give  a  hearty 


116  JOSIAII    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

and  unreserved  assent  to  the  claims  of  Christ  on 
them  for  active  service,  and  he  thought  he  saw  a 
field  of  usefulness  for  an  evangelical  bat  unde- 
nominational church  in  Ward  I.  of  Springfield.  An 
active  sympathizer  and  coadjutor  with  Dr.  Holland 
in  this  project  was  Mr.  George  M.  Atwater,  and  fifty- 
five  members  of  the  North  Church,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  these  two,  went  forth  and  formed  the  Me- 
morial Church — its  name  being  a  recognition  of 
what  they  knew  had  been  the  sincere  and  conse- 
crated and  godly  labors  of  the  deceased  ministers  of 
New  England. 

A  silver  plate  containing  what  may  be  called  the 
"  platform  "  of  this  church  bore  this  inscription  : 

"From  love  to  God  and  good- will  to  man,  a  com- 
pany of  believers  who  profess  faith  in  Christ,  the 
Saviour  of  mankind,  by  the  aid  of  the  churches  of 
Springfield,  and  other  friends  of  the  enterprise,  build 
this  house  of  worship  for  the  Memorial  Church. 
This  church,  constituted  by  the  fellowship  of  Chris- 
tians of  different  denominations,  was  organized  Oc- 
tober 29,  1865,  and  named  the  Memorial  Church  in 
memory  of  the  deceased  ministers  of  New  England. 

"  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is 
laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ. — 1  Cor.  iii.  11. 

"  The  Lord  our  God  be  with  us,  as  he  was  with 
our  fathers  :  let  him  not  leave  us,  nor  forsake  us : 

"That  he  may  incline  our  hearts  unto  him,  to 
walk  in  all  his  ways,  and  to  keep  his  commandments, 


SIMPLICITY    OF   HIS   CREED  117 

and  bis  statutes,  and  his  judgments,  which  he  com- 
manded our  fathers. — 1  Kings  viii.  57,  58." 

Such  a  radically  new  departure  as  this  was, 
thirty  years  ago,  was  bound  to  encounter  opposi- 
tion, and  Dr.  Buckingham  in  his  address  at  the  me- 
morial meeting  said  :  "He  found  no  sympathy,  I  am 
ashamed  to  say,  among  some  of  our  church  members 
and  ministers,  for  obstacles  were  placed  in  his  way 
and  he  was  needlessly  perplexed  ;  and  if  he  had  not 
loved  the  cause  of  Christ  more  than  most,  he  never 
would  have  sacrificed  his  peace  of  mind  and  con- 
tinued to  push  on  to  success  as  he  did  this  enter- 
prise. He  once  said  to  me  :  '  Christianity,  in  the 
form  of  abstract  statement,  and  in  the  shape  of  a 
creed,  has  not  for  me  any  particular  interest  nor 
very  much  meaning ;  I  have  to  test  things  through 
my  heart  and  best  feelings.  If  they  seem  good  and 
true  and  like  Christ,  it  satisfies  me,  and  nothing  else 
does.'  " 

At  the  end  of  a  year  the  church  passed  some  "re- 
solutions "  which  show  how  well  the  plan  had  worked, 
and  as  a  specimen  of  a  church  organized  with  apos- 
tolic simplicity  they  are  here  reproduced.  Their 
preamble  says : 

"Believing  that  an  organized  company  of  be- 
lievers in  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  acknowledge  him 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  mankind,  form  and  constitute  a 


118  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

Christian  church  ;  that  a  Congregational  church  is 
one  which  vests  all  ecclesiastical  power  in  a  com- 
pany thus  organized,  and  that  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church  is  the  universal  Christian  brotherhood ; 
therefore, 

"  1.  Resolved,  That  the  Memorial  Church  of  Spring- 
field, having  declared  in  its  creed  its  belief  in  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church,  welcomes  to  its  membership 
and  communion  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
in  sincerity  and  truth,  and  who  agree  with  it  con- 
cerning the  essential  doctrines  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, by  whatever  name  they  may  be  called. 

"  2.  That  the  success  of  the  church  upon  this  basis 
during  the  first  year  of  its  history — a  success  which 
has  brought  at  least  five  denominations  into  a  happy 
communion  of  personal  feeling  and  action — is  our 
sufficient  justification  for  reaffirming  this  basis  as  a 
ground  of  Christian  liberality,  a  guide  to  a  wise  and 
sound  policy,  and  especially  as  the  true  basis  for 
organized  Christian  effort  in  the  ward  in  which  our 
church  is  located." 

All  this  has  been  put  in  practice  in  so  many  places 
now,  that  it  seems  commonplace,  if  not  trite  and 
stale  ;  but  thirty  years  ago  it  was  a  discovery.  The 
church  retained  much  in  its  formal  confession  of 
faith  that  would  be  eliminated  to-day  as  extraneous 
and  unnecessary,  but,  these  innovators  had  to  throw 
a  sop  to  the  over-tender  theological  conscience  of 
the  day.  At  the  end  of  the  third  year  of  its  life  Dr. 
Holland  went  to  Europe,  and  soon  after  removed  to 


JOIN'S   THE   BRICK    CHURCH  119 

New  York,  but  the  church  thrived,  and  a  recent 
programme  of  its  services  and  activities,  for  a  sin- 
gle week,  shows  that  it  is  a  live  church,  and  do- 
ing a  work  that  reaches  old  and  middle-aged  and 
young. 

On  removing  to  New  York  Dr.  Holland  allied 
himself  to  what  is  known  as  the  Brick  Church,  and 
at  once  responded  to  all  calls  upon  him  in  church 
or  parish  work. 

During  all  his  life  he  wras  an  active  participator 
in  Sunday  school  work,  either  as  teacher  or  super- 
intendent, and  even  when  "recreating"  in  Paris  took 
charge  of  the  Sunday-school  in  the  American  Church 
there.  Wherever  he  went  he  did  not  allow  himself 
to  become  an  idler  in  the  Master's  vineyard. 

A  few  short  extracts  from  his  "Topics  of  the 
Time  "  will  show  how  thoroughly  he  comprehended 
that  transformation  in  the  depraved  which  we  call 
repentance:  '-The  greatness  of  the  founder  of 
Christianity  is  conspicuously  showrn  in  his  passing 
by  social  institutions  as  of  minor  and  inconsidera- 
ble importance  and  fastening  his  claims  upon 
the  individual.  The  reform  of  personal  character 
was  his  one  aim,  with  him  the  man  was  great,  and 
the  institution  small.  There  was  but  one  way  with 
him  for  making  a  good  society,  and  that  was  by  the 
purification  of  its  individual  materials.  There  can 
be  nothing  more  radical  than  this  ;  and  there  never 


120  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

was  anything — there  never  will  be  anything — to  take 
the  place  of  it.     .     .     ." 

"  It  is  most  interesting  and  instructive,  we  repeat, 
to  observe  how  all  the  patent  methods  that  have 
been  adopted  outside  of,  or  in  opposition  to,  Chris- 
tianity, for  the  reformation  of  society,  have,  one  after 
the  other,  gone  to  the  wall,  or  gone  to  the  dogs.  A 
dream  and  a  few  futile  or  disastrous  experiments 
are  all  that  ever  comes  of  them.  Societies,  commu- 
nities, organizations  melt  away  and  are  lost,  and  all 
that  remains  of  them  is  their  history.  We  suppose 
it  is  a  wonder  to  such  men  that  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr. 
Sankey  can  obtain  such  a  following  as  they  do. 
They  undoubtedly  attribute  it  to  superstition  and 
ignorance,  but  these  reformers  are  simply  eminent 
radicals  after  the  Christian  pattern,  who  deal  with 
the  motives  and  means  furnished  them  by  the  one 
great  radical  reformer  of  the  world — Jesus  Christ 
himself.  .  .  .  No  good  society  can  possibly  be 
made  out  of  bad  materials,  and  when  the  materials 
are  made  good  the  society  takes  a  good  form  natur- 
ally, as  a  pure  salt  makes  its  crystal  without  super- 
intendence. Christian  reform,  with  all  its  motives 
and  methods,  is  found  to  be  just  as  vital  to-day  as  it 
ever  was.  It  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
ever. .  .  •  As  near  as  we  can  ascertain,  Mr. 
Moody  has  not  paid  very  much  attention  to  the 
preaching   of   Judaism — involving  a  theism  and  a 


THE   BOOKS    OF   THE   BIBLE  121 

system  of  doctrine  which  Christ  came  to  set  aside 
and  supersede.  Paul  resolved  that  he  wouldn't 
know  anything  but  Jesus  Christ,  and  we  are  inclined 
to  think  that  Mr.  Moody  doesn't  know  anything  but 
Jesus  Christ.  .  .  .  Our  preachers,  as  a  rule, 
know  so  many  things  besides  the  Master  ;  they  have 
wrought  up  such  a  complicated  scheme,  based  upon 
a  thousand  other  things  than  Jesus  Christ,  that  they 
confess  they  don't  understand  it  themselves,  and  yet 
we  are  assured  that  the  path  of  life  is  so  plain  that 
a  wayfaring  man  though  a  fool  need  not  err  therein. 
And  considering  the  fact  that  Christ  is  in  himself 
the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life,  and  considering 
also  the  use  that  has  been  made  of  the  Bible  in  com- 
plicating and  loading  down  his  simple  religion  with 
the  theological  inventions  of  men,  it  may  legiti- 
mately be  questioned  whether  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity has  not  been  hindered  by  our  possession  of 
all  the  sacred  books  outside  of  the  evangelical  his- 
tories." 

"  The  simple  vital  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  not  as  it  is  in  Moses  or  Daniel  or  Jeremiah,  or 
anybody  else,  for  that  matter,  is  what  the  world 
wants."  Dr.  Holland  would  have  echoed  the  senti- 
ment of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor,  of  the  Broadway  Tab- 
ernacle, that  it  was  a  mercy  no  more  of  all  Christ's 
sayings  and  doings  were  recorded  ;  for,  said  he, 
"a  book  that  costs  five  cents,  and  can  be  carried  in 


122  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

the  vest-pocket,  contains  all  the  essentials  of  salva- 
tion." 

Of  the  beautiful  summer  home,  Bonnie-Castle,  at 
Alexandria  Bay,  there  have  been  descriptions  and 
pictures ;  but  when  Dr.  Holland  betook  himself 
thither  for  his  summer  rest  he  did  not  leave  his  re- 
ligion behind.  He  at  once  interested  himself  in  the 
welfare  of  the  little  "Reformed"  church  there,  con- 
tributing generously  to  its  funds,  and  sustaining  its 
ordinances  with  his  presence,  and  its  pastor  with  his 
love  and  confidence. 

In  earnest  conversations  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  De 
Vries,  its  pastor,  he  told  the  story  of  his  early  spiri- 
tual struggles,  and  it  may  light  some  tempest-tossed 
soul  over  a  dark  and  stormy  way.  It  is  certain 
that  could  he  know  that,  he  would  consent  to  its 
repetition  here.  He  said  to  that  excellent  man, 
"  When  little  more  than  a  boy,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to 
join  the  church,  and  did.  I  had  many  doubts  and 
struggles,  sometimes  behaved  in  a  manner  not  be- 
coming a  member  of  the  church  ;  yet  at  communion 
seasons  I  felt  it  my  right  and  duty  to  partake  of  the 
sacrament,  though  many  seemed  to  think  I  had  no 
right  whatever.  So  I  clung  to  the  church.  At 
twenty-eight  years  of  age  I  left  my  home  in  Spring- 
field for  the  South,  leaving  my  young  wife  behind, 
because  necessity  compelled  me.  In  my  adversity 
an   inexpressible   sadness  came  over  me.     I  wept 


SEVEN   YEAR?;    OF   CONFLICT  123 

and  prayed,  day  and  night,  in  the  school  and  in  the 
fields  ;  prayed  as  I  never  prayed  before — prayer 
which  God  heard,  for  then  His  peace  came  upon 
me."  Mr.  De  Vries  says,  "That  was  the  simple 
story  of  his  conversion." 

But  what  of  the  seven  long  intervening  years  ? 
Did  he  ever  become  indifferent  to  bis  duty  as  far  as 
he  saw  it  ?  Did  he  starve  his  soul,  as  thousands  of 
our  young  men  do,  and  remain  away  from  church, 
because  he  could  not  yield  an  intellectual  assent  to 
all  the  dogmas  contained  in  the  creeds?  No,  he 
still  continued  to  seek,  faithfully  performing  the 
duty  that  lay  next  to  his  hand — strove  to  make 
himself  a  useful  and  valuable  man  in  medicine,  and 
when  he  found  himself  unadapted  to  it,  he  still 
strove  to  provide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  all 
men  for  himself  and  his,  and  while  in  the  faithful 
performance  of  this  first  and  nearest  duty  of  all 
men,  God's  light  shone  into  his  soul,  as  it  certain- 
ly would  not  have  done  had  he  ceased  to  strive  to 
enter  in  at  the  strait  gate.  During  those  seven 
years  of  conflict  and  unrest  he  "  thought  and 
thought  and  thought,"  on  the  vital  problems  of 
religion — the  soul's  relation  to  God  in  all  the  varied 
phases  of  life.  He  wrought  out  for  himself  a  clear 
solution  of  many  of  the  most  perplexing  problems 
which  he  was  to  elucidate  to  many  other  inquiring 
minds,  when  he  should  realize  that  the  materials  in 


124  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

winch  be  was  set  to  work  were  the  most  impalpa- 
ble of  all  things,  but  when  moulded  by  their  own 
heaven  -  appointed  artificers,  will  outlast  empires. 
Of  these  "  words  "  he  says  :  "When  the  artist  works 
with  these  he  works  with  that  by  which  God  made 
the  universe  ;  and  there  is  no  genuine  embodiment 
of  the  highest  life  of  man  which  passes  so  directly 
into  the  life  of  other  men  as  that  which  takes  the 
form  of  words.  The  pencil  and  the  chisel  are  but 
clumsy  things  by  the  side  of  the  pen — the  choicest 
and  noblest  of  all  instruments  ever  placed  in  hu- 
man fingers." 

With  this  recital  as  the  "  key,"  we  read  between  the 
lines  in  "Arthur  Bonnicastle."  He  has  been  speak- 
ing of  the  restraining  force  that  the  mere  fact  of 
his  being  a  church-member  had  exercised  over  him, 
though  he  had  violated  his  conscience  in  many  ways 
in  those  young  days,  and  says  :  "But  this  was  not 
all.  My  life  had  come  into  the  line  of  the  divine 
plan  for  my  own  Christian  development.  I  had 
been  a*  recipient  all  my  life ;  now  I  had  become 
an  active  power.  I  had  all  my  life  been  appro- 
priating the  food  that  came  to  me,  and  amusing 
myself  with  the  playthings  of  fancy  and  imagina- 
tion ;  now  I  had  begun  to  act,  and  expend  in 
earnest  work  for  worthy  objects.  The  spiritual 
attitude  effected  by  this  change  wras  one  which 
brought    me   face   to  face   with   all  that   was   un- 


HIS   SPIRITUAL   QUICKENING  12o 

worthy  in  me  and  in  my  past  life,  and  I  felt  my- 
self under  the  influence  of  a  mighty  regenerating 
power,  which  I  had  no  disposition  to  resist.  I 
could  not  tell  whence  it  came  nor  whither  it  went. 
.  .  .  There  was  no  outcry,  no  horror  of  great 
darkness,  no  disposition  to  publish,  but  a  subtle, 
silent,  sweet  revolution.  As  it  went  on  within  me, 
I  grew  stronger  day  by  day,  and  my  life  and  work 
were  flooded  with  the  light  of  a  great  and  fine 
significance.  Sensibility  softened,  and  endurance 
hardened  under  it." 

His  own  explanation  of  this  "psychological  ex- 
perience "  follows  in  the  next  paragraph  :  "  Spirit  of 
God,  thou  didst  not  thunder  on  Sinai  amidst  the 
smoke  and  tempest ;  but  in  the  burning  bush  thou 
didst  appear  in  a  flame  that  warmed  without  with- 
ering, and  illuminated  without  consuming.  Thou 
didst  not  hang  upon  the  cross  on  Calvary,  but  thou 
didst  stir  the  hearts  of  the  bereaved  disciples  as 
they  walked  in  the  way  with  their  risen  Lord. 
.  .  .  Was  this  conversion  ?  It  was  not  an  in- 
tellectual matter  at  all.  I  had  changed  no  opin- 
ions, for  the  unworthy  opinions  I  had  acquired  had 
fallen  from  me,  one  by  one,  as  my  practice  had 
conformed  more  and  more  to  the  Christian  stand- 
ard. .  .  .  My  deepest  intellectual  convictions 
remained  precisely  what  they  had  always  been. 
No,   it   was   a  spiritual  quickening.     It   had   been 


126  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

winter  with  me,  and  I  had  been  covered  with  snow 
and  locked  with  ice.  Did  I  melt  the  bonds  which 
held  me,  by  warmth  self-generated  ?  Does  the  rose 
do  this,  or  the  violet  ?  There  was  a  sun  in  some 
heaven  I  could  not  see  that  shone  upon  me.  There 
was  a  wind  from  some  far  latitude  that  breathed 
upon  me.  To  be  quickened  is  to  be  touched  by  a 
vital  finger.  To  be  quickened  is  to  receive  a  fructi- 
fying flood  from  the  great  source  of  light." 

He  makes  his  hero  refer  to  two  spiritual  crises  in 
his  life,  but  says  neither  change  was  conversion, 
and  then  gives  this  theory  :  "  Far  back  in  child- 
hood, at  my  mother's  knee,  at  my  father's  side,  and 
in  my  own  secret  chamber,  those  changes  were 
wrought  which  had  directed  my  life  toward  a  Chris- 
tian consummation.  My  little  rivulet  was  flowing 
toward  the  sea,  increasing  as  it  went,  when  it  was 
disturbed  by  the  first  awful  experiences  of  my 
life  ;  and  its  turbid  waters  were  never,  until  this 
later  time,  wholly  clarified.  ...  If  my  later 
experience  was  conversion,  then  conversion  may 
come  to  a  man  every  }-ear  of  his  life.  It  was  simply 
a  revivification  and  reinforcement  of  the  powers 
and  processes  of  spiritual  life.  It  was  ministry  di- 
rect and  immediate,  to  development  and  growth  ; 
and  with  me  it  was  complete  restoration  to  the 
track  of  my  Christian  boyhood.  ...  I  learned 
then,  what  the  world  is  slowT  to  learn,  that  there 


REV.    MR.   DRUMMOND  127 

can  be  no  true  happiness  that  is  not  the  result  of 
the  action  of  harmonious  powers  steadily  bent  upon 
pursuits  that  seek  a  worthy  end,  and  that  it  can 
never  be  grasped  and  held  save  by  true  manhood 
and  womanhood."  Are  we  to  infer  that  no  tempta- 
tions ever  came  to  him,  that  the  final  victory  was 
won  in  this  hour  of  "  clear  shining  after  raiu  ?  "  Far 
from  it.  The  conquest  of  grace  over  a  naturally 
sensitive  temper  and  a  proud  spirit  was  not  won 
without  effort.  He  once  confessed,  in  a  very  intimate 
conversation,  "I  must  acknowledge  every  day  that 
I  find  every  sin,  at  least  the  germ  of  every  sin, 
in  my  own  heart."  From  the  day  of  this  great 
quickening  he  was  God's  willing  servant,  ever  work- 
ing as  if  in  the  Master's  eye,  and  with  his  face 
steadily  set  toward  the  Heavenly  City,  and  very 
likely  wras  sustained  and  comforted  on  the  way  by 
the  ministrations  of  such  a  spiritually  gifted  man  as 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Drummond.  Certain  it  is  he  learned 
that  he  had  the  gift  of  touching  the  hearts  and 
influencing  the  lives  of  the  great  masses  of  the  plain 
people,  and  long  before  he  died  millions  of  them 
had  had  their  lives  touched  to  finer  issues  by  those 
words  among  which  was  not  one  that  needed  to 
be  repented  of  in  the  great  hour  of  his  own  final 
judgment. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Literary  Success  a  Plant  of  Slow  Growth—"  Bitter-Sweet" 
published  when  he  was  Forty — Criticisms  of  It — James 
Russell  Lowell's  review  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly  — 
"  Thanksgiving  Day  " — Observations  on  the  Bible. 

Few  literary  men  have  seemed  to  have  such  a  de- 
finite conception  of  the  place  they  were  fitted  for 
and  were  resolved  to  fill  as  Browning.  From  the 
time  when  he  began  to  think  at  all  on  a  life-work  he 
was  resolved  to  be  a  poet.  His  circumstances  left 
him  free  of  care  for  livelihood,  and  there  was  no 
danger  that  his  physical  wants  would  fail  of  being 
supplied  even  if  his  books  did  not  sell.  When  Dr. 
Holland  was  but  a  youth,  to  be  a  poet,  seemed  to 
him  the  loftiest  and  most  desirable  of  human  des- 
tinies, and  he  never  could  recall  the  time  when  the 
dream  of  being  one  did  not  haunt  his  thoughts. 
When  we  recall  the  fact  that  many  of  the  finest 
poets  have  had  to  wait  through  long  years  for  rec- 
ognition, and  that  this  man  was  compelled  to  take 
his  place  among  those  of  the  world's  workers  who 
could  produce  something  adapted  to  immediate  intel- 
lectual consumption,  we  do  not  wonder  that  his  first 


"bitter-sweet  "  129 

distinctive  "  Poem  "  made  its  appearance  when  he 
was  forty  years  old — "  Bitter-Sweet  "  was  published 
in  1859.  It  took  a  dramatic  form,  and  into  it  are 
distilled  Dr.  Holland's  reflections  on  the  mysteries 
of  Life  and  Death,  on  the  soul-wracking  problems 
of  Doubt  and  Faith,  on  the  existence  of  Evil  as 
ODe  of  the  vital  conditions  of  the  universe,  on  the 
questions  of  Predestination,  Original  Sin,  Free-will, 
and  the  whole  haunting  brood  of  Calvinistic  theologi- 
cal metaphysics,  these  last  being  what  Emerson  calls 
the  "  mumps  and  measles  of  the  soul  " — they  may 
not  kill,  but  are  full  of  discomfort  while  being  en- 
dured. In  the  next  century  people  will  refer  to  it, 
to  learn  exactly  what  a  New  England  Thanksgiving 
was  like,  while  it  yet  remained  the  crowning  festival 
of  the  year,  for  a  people  who  were  unsophisticated 
by  travel  and  communication  with  others  whose 
high  yearly  festival  was  Christmas.  But  under  and 
through  all  disguises  of  rhyme  and  rhythm,  of  blank 
verse  and  careful  scansion,  of  question,  rejoinder, 
and  song,  there  is  ever  seen  the  face  and  form  of  the 
ineradicable  preacher.  Old  Froissart  says  "the 
English  take  their  pleasures  seriously,"  and  in  "  Bit- 
ter-Sweet," where  some  passages  are  attempted  in 
what  we  call  the  "  lighter  vein,"  it  is  perfectly  plain 
that  Dr.  Holland,  who  was  "English,"  and  a  great 
deal  more,  could  never  trifle  successfully. 

All   those  writers   who  have  really  touched  the 
9 


130  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

hearts  of  men  have  looked  within  themselves  and 
transcribed  what  they  have  found  there  before 
they  could  win  a  sympathetic  hearing.  Emerson 
says  :  "  Every  man's  condition  is  a  solution  in  hiero- 
glyphic to  those  inquiries  he  would  put.  He  acts 
it  as  life  before  he  apprehends  it  as  truth."  In  a 
discussion  on  the  uses  of  Evil,  in  "  Bitter-Sweet " 
David  says  to  Ruth, 

"  Thus  to  me 
Evil  is  not  a  mystery,  but  a  means 
Selected  from  the  infinite  resource 
To  make  the  most  of  me." 

His  interlocutor — Ruth — begins  to  be  convinced 
and  to  recall  examples  ;  and  says  : 

"  I  see  a  youth  whom  God  has  crowned  with  power, 
And  cursed  with  poverty.     With  bravest  heart 
He  struggles  with  his  lot,  through  toilsome  years, — 
Kept  to  his  task  by  daily  want  of  bread, 
And  kept  to  virtue  by  his  daily  task, — 
Till,  gaining  manhood  in  the  manly  strife, — 
The  fire  that  fills  liim  smitten  from  a  flint — 
The  strength  that  arms  him  wrested  from  a  fiend — 
He  stands,  at  last,  a  master  of  himself, 
And,  in  that  grace,  a  master  of  his  kind." 

No  prima  donna  thinks  she  has  exhibited  all  her 
powers  till  she  has  essayed  a  "  Cradle  Song  "  for  us, 
and  all  of  the  great  poets  have  attempted  to  record 
their  speculations  anent  infancy   in  literature,  but 


A  "song  of  doubt"  131 

few  of  them  have  ever  achieved  a  cleverer  bit  of 
genuine  "  baby-talk "  than  is  to  be  found  in  the 
passage  where  Ruth  bends  over  the  cradle  and  lulls 
her  young  nephew  to  sleep  with  a  rhythmical  mixt- 
ure of  nonsense  and  philosophy  about  those 

"Barks  that  were  launched  on  the  other  side, 
And  slipped  from  Heaven  on  an  ebbing  tide." 

Many  of  the  opinions  that  had  crystallized  in  his 
mind  have  become  commonplace  to-day — they  found 
a  voice  in  this  poem.  He  knew  that  there  are  hours 
in  the  brightest  lives  when  the  stars  seem  to  have 
gone  out,  and  the  soul  feeling  itself  in  the  grasp  of 
forces  which  it  can  neither  defy  nor  conquer,  can 
only  moan  out  its  misery.  In  a  "Song  of  Doubt," 
we  hear  their  wail  : 

"  The  day  is  quenched,  and  the  sun  is  fled  ; 
God  has  forgotten  the  world ! 
The  moon  is  gone,  and  the  stars  are  dead  ; 
God  has  forgotten  the  world  ! 

"  Evil  has  won  in  the  horrid  feud 
Of  ages  with  The  Throne  ; 
Evil  stands  on  the  neck  of  Good, 
And  rules  the  world  alone. 

"  What  are  prayers  in  the  lips  of  death, 
Filling  and  chilling  with  hail  ? 
What  are  prayers  but  wasted  breath, 
Beaten  back  by  the  sale.'" 


132  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

And  in  the  "Song  of  Faith"  he  voices  the  spirit  of 
the  hours  when  the  soul  is  flooded  with  ineffable  joy, 
and  is  convinced  that 

"  Day  will  return  with  a  fresher  boon  ; 
God  will  remember  the  world ! 
Night  will  come  with  a  newer  moon  ; 
God  will  remember  the  world !  " 

"  Evil  is  only  slave  of  Good, 

Sorrow  the  servant  of  Joy  ;  " 

"  The  fountain  of  joy  is  fed  by  tears, 

And  love  is  lit  by  the  breath  of  sighs, 
The  deepest  griefs  and  the  wildest  fears 
Have  holiest  ministries." 

He  had  pondered  the  mysteries  of  Pain  and  Death, 

"Life  evermore  is  fed  by  death, 
In  earth  and  sea  and  sky  ; 
And,  that  a  rose  may  breathe  its  breath, 

Something  mast  die. 

44  Earth  is  a  sepulchre  of  flowers, 
Whose  vitalizing  mould 
Through  boundless  transmutation  towers, 
In  green  and  gold. 

"  The  falcon  preys  upon  the  finch, 
The  finch  upon  the  fly, 
And  nought  will  loose  the  hunger-pinch 

But  death's  wild  cry. 


133 

"  From  lowly  woe  springs  lordly  joy  ; 

From  liunible  good  diviner  ; 

The  greater  life  must  aye  destroy 

And  drink  the  minor. 

"  From  hand  to  hand  life's  cup  is  passed 
Up  Being's  piled  gradation, 
Till  men  to  angels  yield  at  last 

The  rich  collation." 

And  really  the  burden  of  the  poem  is  to  show  God's 
uses  for  evil,  in  fitting  his  principal  character  through 
suffering,  for  "  saintship  in  Christ — the  Manhood 
Absolute  ! " 

Nothing  in  life  so  resembles  putting  a  window 
over  the  heart  as  for  an  "  earnest  man  "  to  bring  out 
a  poem  into  which  he  has  condensed  so  much  of  his 
own  experience  and  thought  as  make  it  truly  his. 
He  listens  with  trembling  anxiety  for  those  echoes 
that  shall  assure  him  whether  in  the  poet's  pre-emi- 
nent office  of  seer  he  has  discovered  anything  not 
found  before,  whether  he  had  anything  new  to  tell, 
or  if  he  has  been  able  to  set  old  truths  at  new  angles, 
so  that  they  could  send  scintillant  and  penetrating- 
rays  into  hitherto  unillumined  corners.  Dr.  Holland 
had  his  full  share  of  this  expectant  sensitiveness,  and 
so  we  can  imagine  how  the  critique  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly — then,  more  than  now,  the  recognized  ar- 
biter of  literary  fate — was  looked  for  ;  but  only  a 
writer  can  appreciate  such  praise  as  this  :  "  'Bitter- 


134  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

Sweet '  is  truly  an  original  poem — as  genuine  a  prod- 
uct of  our  soil  as  a  golden-rod  or  an  aster.  It  is  as 
purely  American — nay,  more  than  that,  as  purely 
New  English,  as  the  poems  of  Burns  or  Scott  were 
Scotch.  We  read  ourselves  gradually  back  to  our 
boyhood  in  it,  and  were  aware  of  a  flavor  in  it  deli- 
ciously  local  and  familiar — a  kind  of  sour-sweet,  as  in 
a,  frozen-thaw  apple.  From  the  title  to  the  last  line 
it  is  delightfully  characteristic.  The  family-party 
met  for  Thanksgiving  can  hit  on  no  better  way  to  be 
jolly  than  in  a  discussion  of  the  Origin  of  Evil,  and 
the  Yankee  husband  (a  shooting-star  in  the  quiet 
haven  of  village  morals)  about  to  run  away  from  his 
wife  can  be  content  with  no  less  comet-like  vehicle 
than  a  balloon.  The  poem  is  Yankee,  even  to  the 
questionable  extent  of  substituting  '  locality '  for 
1  scene  '  in  the  stage  directions  ;  and  we  feel  sure 
that  none  of  the  characters  ever  went  to  bed  in  their 
lives,  but  always  sidled  through  the  more  decorous 
subterfuge  of  'retiring.' 

"  "We  could  easily  show  that  '  Bitter-Sweet '  was 
not  this  and  that  and  t'other,  but,  after  all  said  and 
done,  it  would  remain  an  obstinately  charming  little 
book.  It  is  not  free  from  faults  of  taste,  nor  from  a 
certain  commonplaceness  of  metre  ;  but  Mr.  Holland 
always  saves  himself  in  some  expression  so  simply 
poetical,  some  image  so  fresh  and  natural,  the  har- 
vest of  his  own  heart  and  eye,  that  we  are  ready  to 


JAMES    RUSSELL    LOWELL' S    PRAISE      135 

forgive  him  all  faults  in  our  thankfulness  at  finding 
the  soul  of  Theocritus  transmigrated  into  the  body 
of  a  Yankee. 

"It  would  seem  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world 
to  be  able  to  help  yourself  to  what  lies  all  around 
you  ready  to  your  hand ;  but  writers  of  verse  com- 
monly find  it  a  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  thing  to 
do.  Conscious  that  a  certain  remoteness  from  ordi- 
nary life  is  essential  in  poetry,  they  aim  at  it  by 
laying  their  scenes  far  away  in  time,  and  taking 
their  images  from  far  away  in  space — thus  contriv- 
ing to  be  foreign  at  once  to  their  century  and  their 
country.  Such  self-made  exiles  and  aliens  are  never 
repatriated  by  posterity.  It  is  only  here  and  there 
that  a  man  is  found  like  Hawthorne,  Judd,  and  Mr. 
Holland,  who  discovers  or  instinctively  feels  that  this 
remoteness  is  attained  and  attainable  only  by  lifting 
up  and  transfiguring  the  ordinary  and  familiar  with 
the  mirage  of  the  ideal.  "We  mean  it  as  very  high 
praise  when  we  say  that  '  Bitter- Sweet '  is  one  of 
the  few  books  that  have  found  the  secret  of  drawing 
up  and  assimilating  the  juices  of  this  New  World  of 
ours." 

This  was  the  critical  and  analytical  judgment  of 
no  less  a  man  than  James  Russell  Lowell — and  with 
the  sweet  consciousness  that  he  approved  it,  Dr. 
Holland  could  afford  to  let  lesser  men  carp  at  and 
ridicule  it,  and  whether  you  agree  or  dissent,  when 


136  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

you  go  to  bis  publisher's  ledger  you  will  learn  that 
more  tban  ninety  thousand  copies  of  the  book  have 
been  sold,  and  that  there  is  still  an  ever  fresh  demand 
for  it,  and  you  will  realize  that  it  touched  a  respon- 
sive chord  in  what  is  ignorantly  judged  to  be  the 
impassive  Yankee  breast. 

What  was  the  secret  of  this  power,  of  this  spell 
which  he  wove  over  so  many  of  the  plain,  hard- 
working people  of  New  England.  One  example  will 
supply  the  answer.  He  wrote,  very  soon  after  he 
became  connected  with  the  Bepublican,  an  editorial 
on  "Thanksgiving  Day" — this  was  many  years  be- 
fore the  appearance  of  "Bitter-Sweet."  It  really  is 
a  prose  poem  of  great  vividness  and  beauty,  and  it 
was  because  the  spirit  of  this  uniquely  local  Thanks- 
giving festival  of  his  region  and  his  time  had  pene- 
trated his  inmost  soul,  that  he  could  sketch  its  lin- 
eaments, and  lift  it  up  into  the  transfiguring  light 
which  remains  imperishable,  while  the  festival  itself, 
in  its  most  marked  features,  is  fading  away  or  merg- 
ing in  the  more  universal  one  of  Christmas. 

A  native  New  England  publisher — a  good  judge 
of  literary  work — thinks  the  "Cotter's  Saturday 
Night "  itself  does  not  surpass  it  in  its  pictures  of 
homely  happiness.  This  may  be  extravagant  praise, 
but  a  sentence  or  two  will  show  how  he  could  use 
the  short,  simple,  Saxon  elements  of  our  language, 
and  the  sympathy  that  could  understand  the  atti- 


137 

tude  of  every  class  toward  it  exhibits  "the  hidings 
of  his  power." 

"  Once  more  the  Puritan  Anniversary  !  Wherever 
the  heart  of  a  child  of  New  England  beats  to-day,  it 
warms  in  the  fire  of  tender  memories,  and  throbs  to 
the  touch  of  happy  or  sad  associations.  From  West- 
ern forests,  from  Southern  everglades,  from  the 
golden  gulches  and  treasure  -  laden  river-beds  of 
California,  from  every  country  under  the  whole 
heaven,  and  from  every  sea  that  mirrors  the  stars 
and  stripes,  the  thoughts — the  yearning  thoughts — 
of  thousands,  nay,  millions,  come  teeming  home. 
The  fires  that  glow  upon  our  hearths  to-day  shine  out 
through  all  the  world.  The  kiss  that  rings  in  the 
hall,  as  the  dear  friends  come  in — the  father,  the 
mother,  the  sister,  the  brother — and  lay  aside  their 
furs  and  the  dusty  gear  of  travel,  flies  on  the  wings 
of  the  wind,  and  melts  like  a  snowflake,  cooled  by 
distance,  but  really  from  heaven,  on  the  trembling 
lip  of  fancy,  thousands  of  weary  miles  away.  Pres- 
ent in  spirit  at  our  smoking  boards  to-day  are  all 
the  rovers.  The  blithe  Thanksgiving  bells  are  heard 
by  listening  travellers  all  over  life's  weary  desert." 
Then  he  draws  pictures  of  the  festival  as  kept  in  the 
home  of  wealth ;  in  the  laborer's  cottage,  where  the 
daughter  has  returned  from  the  factory,  bearing 
gifts  to  nil  the  younger  children  ;  in  the  poor 
widow's  cottage,  who  has  been  endowed  with  plen- 


138  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

teous  bounties ;  in  the  home  of  the  young  couple 
just  setting  out  on  their  married  life;  then  of  the 
home  where  the  aged  father  and  mother  no  longer 
sit  at  the  board,  till  all  the  phases  of  life  have  been 
represented;  but  we  quote  only  one  :  "Pile  on  the 
logs!  Let  the  flame  go  dancing  up  the  chimney. 
We  are  all  together  once  more.  The  father  with  his 
thin  hair  sits  in  his  easy-chair,  and  the  good  old 
mother  is  busy  about  the  house.  The  favorite  son 
and  his  chosen  companion  have  come  home,  and 
merry  children  bear  them  company.  His  manly 
voice  rings  through  the  old  house  once  more,  and 
how  much  good  it  does  the  old  man's  heart  to  hear 
it.  The  sweet  girl  who  went  out  with  the  stranger 
is  at  her  father's  feet  as  in  days  long  gone  by,  and 
the  womanly  dignity  which  she  has  learned  to  wear, 
and  the  independent  spirit  she  has  striven  to  cherish 
before  the  world,  have  given  way,  and,  melted  in 
tears  of  love  and  gratitude — she  is  a  blessed  child 
again.  Listen  to  the  merry  prattle  in  the  room. 
For  twenty  years  the  house  has  not  echoed  with 
such  music.  And  how  the  stream  of  talk  flows  on 
in  happy  volubility  !  This  is  Thanksgiving  in  one 
house."  Then  at  the  close  the  inborn  preacher 
that  he  was  asserted  itself  thus:  "With  bended 
knees,  with  overflowing  hearts,  with  kindly  benevo- 
lent emotions,  with  glad  and  contented  minds,  with 
subdued  and  penitent  spirits,    let  us  make  return 


ADVERSE   CRITICISMS  139 

for  all  the  blessings  of  the  year.  Thus  shall  the 
future  be  bathed  in  a  brighter  light,  and  the  re- 
turning holidays,  that  stand  like  golden  altars  along 
the  pathway  of  the  future,  their  calm  smoke  ascend- 
ing up  to  heaven,  shall  make  all  the  road  look  hal- 
lowed and  hopeful."  The  plainest  working-man 
could  make  those  pictures  his  own. 

As  there  are  at  least  a  thousand  persons  born 
with  the  critical  faculty  to  one  who  has  the  creative 
gift,  each  new  literary  production  has  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  the  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  who 
couldn't  have  done  the  work  of  the  thousandth  man, 
but  who  can  see  all  its  defects  and  shortcomings,  and 
"  Bitter-Sweet "  was  no  exception,  and  as  an  animal 
stung  by  a  wasp,  while  lying  at  ease  on  the  green 
grass  of  a  sunny,  breeze-swept  pasture,  concentrates 
all  its  thoughts  for  the  time  on  the  sting,  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  the  delights  of  the  situation,  so  an 
author  suffers  from  what  he  inevitably  considers  an 
unjust  estimate  of  his  work.  George  Eliot  showed 
her  wisdom  in  running  away  to  the  Continent  every 
time  she  put  forth  a  new  book,  for  even  her  con- 
summate gifts  couldn't  abash  the  critics.  As  the 
great  sale  of  the  book  had  not  yet  attested  its 
genuine  qualities,  the  buzz  of  the  stingers  hurt  and 
depressed  Dr.  Holland,  and  just  at  this  time  a  lit- 
tle circumstance  occurred  that  helped  to  reassure 
him,    and  it  always  lingered  in   his  memory   as   a 


140  •  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

bright  episode.  Among  the  corps  of  instructors  at 
the  Maple  wood  Institute  of  Pittsfield,  then  a  promi- 
nent and  flourishing  school  for  young  women,  there 
chanced  to  be  a  man  who  could  write  pleasing 
song-music,  and  another  man  truly  accomplished  in 
all  the  "  business "  pertaining  to  theatrical  repre- 
sentations. Between  them  they  arranged  from 
"Bitter-Sweet"  a  very  clever  "dramatic  episode," 
to  be  acted  and  sung  by  the  pupils  at  Christmas. 
A  friend  invited  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Holland  to  come  to 
Pittsfield  and  witness  the  performance,  which  was 
very  creditably  done,  in  the  presence  of  an  audience 
consisting  of  the  elite  of  the  town,  who  frequently 
manifested  their  approbation.  At  the  close  the 
Rev.  John  Todd,  who  had  a  happy  gift  for  im- 
promptu  and  occasional  speeches,  made  a  little  ad- 
dress congratulating  the  author,  and  the  praise  was 
especially  grateful  to  the  man,  who,  as  a  poor  med- 
ical student,  having  brought  no  letters  of  intro- 
duction to  influential  people,  had  passed  two  rather 
unsatisfactory  lecture-terms  in  the  town,  and  had 
felt  a  little  sore  over  what  seemed  an  undeserved 
obscurity.  Another  grateful  coincidence  was  the  fact 
that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Todd  had  been  the  pastor  of  the 
Edwards  church  in  Northampton  at  the  time  when 
Dr.  Holland  was  fighting  his  poverty  by  teaching 
penmanship  in  his  out-of-school  time.  What  was  na- 
tive and  genuine  in  each  of  two  truly  original  men 


SO-CALLED    "  DANGEROUS"    VIEWS      141 

sprang  to  greet  its  like  in  the  other,  and  though 
often  differing  in  opinion  they  were  the  firmest  of 
friends  thereafter,  and  very  long  afterward  Dr.  Hol- 
land said  to  the  lady  who  had  secured  his  presence 
at  the  "  play,"  with  ardent  expressions  of  gratitude, 
"  You  took  pains  to  be  kind  to  me  when  I  needed  it." 
But  there  was  another  quite  unexpected  effect  of 
the  publication  of  "  Bitter-Sweet,"  which  at  the  pres- 
ent time  will  hardly  be  believed,  and  which  cannot 
be  justly  estimated  without  taking  into  consideration 
the  fact  that  it  was  published  before  the  volcanic 
outburst  of  the  war,  when  people  still  had  a  great 
deal  of  time  for  the  introspective  analysis  of  their 
moods  and  spiritual  "  states,"  and  were  given  to 
hair-splitting  speculations  on  the  "  soundness  "  of 
tenets,  and  many  were  endowed  with  both  taste  and 
leisure  for  marking  the  slightest  deviations  from  the 
beaten  paths  of  orthodoxy — in  short,  were  heres}'- 
hunters,  believing  themselves  largely  warranted  in 
criticising  and  regulating  the  "  walk  aud  conversa- 
tion," if  not  the  consciences,  of  others.  These  were 
generally  persons  scarcely  fitted  to  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  an  imaginative  work  ;  they  could  not  sepa- 
rate the  artist  from  the  man,  and  some  of  them 
seemed  to  think  the  author  ought  to  be  able  to  lay 
his  hand  on  his  heart  and  make  oath  to  every  opinion 
and  action  as  a  "true  fact"  of  his  own  belief  and  ex- 
perience.    From  the  time  when  Dr.   Holland  had 


142  JOSIAH    GILBERT  HOLLAND 

advised  his  Bible  Class  to  pay  more  attention  to  tbe 
doctrines  and  life  of  Christ,  and  less  to  tbose  of 
Moses  and  David  and  Daniel,  be  had  been  some- 
what of  an  orthodox  suspect,  and  he  felt  that  by  a 
certain  conservative,  ultra-respectable  class  of  men 
— some  of  them  of  pure  and  beautiful  private  lives 
and  actuated  by  the  loftiest  of  motives — his  senti- 
ments were  regarded  with  disfavor — he  thought 
undeserved  disfavor.  With  them  he  certainly  had 
lost  caste  by  the  publication  of  views  that  they  rated 
dangerous  and  "  shaky."  He  felt  himself  misunder- 
stood, and  it  was  while  he  was  being  made  to  feel 
the  chill  of  this  unsympathetic  atmosphere  that  the 
shock  came  by  which  all  the  dreamers  and  theoriz- 
ers  wrere  rudely  shaken  from  their  speculations  by 
the  call  "  to  arms,"  and  the  man  who  could  crush 
down  all  selfish  aims,  and  respond  in  obedience  to 
the  great  "  /ought  to  go"  was  seen  to  be  the  man 
of  true  worth,  whatever  views  he  may  have  held  on 
Speculative  Theology.  During  those  four  years  of 
agony  the  New  England  mind  underwent  a  revolu- 
tion in  its  standards  of  judgment  upon  conduct,  and 
in  that  great  upheaval  were  laid  the  foundations  of 
that  re-examination,  with  new  illumination,  of  time- 
worn  beliefs,  and  that  reorganization  of  creeds, 
which,  as  "Whittier  says,  make  it  "  seem  as  if  the 
foundations  are  breaking  up,"  and  he  hopes  "  that  if 
the  planks  and  stagings  of  human  device  give  way  we 


HATRED    OF    SHAMS  143 

shall  find  the  Eternal  Rock  beneath.  .  .  .  We 
cannot  do  without  God,  and  of  him  we  are  sure." 
To  Dr.  Holland,  too,  it  was  given  never  for  one  mo- 
ment to  miss  a  living  faith  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
and  in  the  leadership  and  Brotherhood  of  Christ. 

Meantime  the  multitudes  of  men  and  women  who 
had  read  the  poem  and  his  other  books  wanted  to 
see  and  hear  their  author,  and  on  the  lecture  plat- 
form he  showed  the  same  insight  into  the  popular 
heart,  and  the  same  mastery  of  the  keys  that  open 
it,  that  had  commended  his  books  to  the  multi- 
tude. In  this  series  of  lectures,  studied  by  the  light 
of  thirty  years  after,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  really 
"  original "  were  the  views  he  held  on  all  the  moral 
and  religious  questions  of  the  time.  As  great  a 
hater  of  shams  as  Carlyle  himself,  he  took  a  less 
startling  way  of  shattering  them,  and  seeing  plainly 
the  folly  of  trying  to  guide  the  footsteps  of  to- 
day by  the  light  of  lamps  that  wrent  out  hundreds 
of  years  ago,  he  did  his  best  to  persuade  people  to 
drop  the  lamps  and  get  new  ones.  His  observa- 
tions on  the  Bible — on  which  he  had  thought  and 
studied  much  —  show  him  as  an  avant-coureur  of 
the  agitation  that  is  to-day  disturbing  Christen- 
dom. "There  is  a  good  deal  of  irrational  reverence 
for  the  Bible.  There  are  men  who  carry  a  Bible 
with  them  wherever  they  go  as  a  sort  of  protection 
to  them.     There  are  men  who  read  it  daily,  not  be- 


144  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

cause  they  are  truth-seekers,  but  because  they  are 
favor-seekers.  To  read  it  is  a  part  of  their  duty. 
To  neglect  to  read  it  would  be  to  court  adversity. 
There  are  men  who  open  it  at  random  to  see  what 
special  message  God  has  for  them  through  the 
ministry  of  chance  or  miracle.  There  are  men  who 
hold  it  as  a  sort  of  fetich,  and  bear  it  about  with 
them  as  if  it  were  an  idol.  There  are  men  who  see 
God  in  it j  and  see  Him  nowhere  else.  The  wonder- 
ful words  printed  upon  the  starry  heavens  ;  the  mu- 
sic of  the  ministry  that  comes  to  them  in  winds 
and  waves  and  in  the  songs  of  birds;  the  multi- 
plied forms  of  beauty  that  smile  upon  them  from 
streams  and  flowers,  and  lakes  and  landscapes  ;  the 
great  scheme  of  beneficent  service  by  which  they 
receive  their  daily  bread  and  their  clothing  and 
shelter — all  these  are  unobserved,  or  fail  to  be  rec- 
ognized as  divine.  In  short,  there  is  to  them  no 
expression  of  God  except  what  they  find  in  a  book. 
And  this  book  is  so  sacred  that  even  the  form  of 
language  into  which  it  has  been  imperfectly  trans- 
lated is  sacred.  They  would  not  have  a  word 
changed.  They  would  recoil  from  any  attempt  to 
examine  critically  into  the  sources  of  the  book,  for- 
getting that  they  are  rational  beings,  and  that  one 
of  the  uses  of  their  rational  faculties  is  to  know 
whereof  they  affirm,  and  to  give  a  reason  for  the 
faith  and  hope  that  are  in  them." 


CREEDS    OUTWORN  145 

On  creeds,  he  says  :  "  Old  creeds  cannot  possibly 
contain  the  present  life  and  thought  and  opinion, 
old  ideas  whose  vitality  has  long  been  expended — 
there  are  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  the  world 
— yet  they  are  cherished  and  adhered  to  with  a 
reverential  tenderness  that  is  due  only  to  God.  A 
worn-out  creed  is  good  for  nothing  but  historical 
purposes,  and  when  these  are  answered  it  ought  to 
go  into  the  rag-bag.  .  .  .  We  travel  toward 
the  dawn,  and  every  man  who  reverences  the  past, 
simply  because  it  is  the  past,  worships  toward  the 
setting  sun,  and  will  find  himself  in  darkness  be- 
fore he  is  aware.  That  is  an  irrational  reverence 
which  always  looks  up  and  never  around — which  is 
always  in  awe  and  never  in  delight — which  exceed- 
ingly fears  and  quakes,  and  has  no  tender  raptures — 
which  places  God  at  a  distance  and  fails  to  recog- 
nize Him  in  the  thousand  forms  that  appeal  to  our 
sense  of  Beauty,  and  the  thousand  small  voices  that 
speak  of  His  immediate  presence." 

It  was  to  rid  himself,  and  those  like-minded  with 
him,  of  the  rags  of  outworn  creeds,  that  through 
much  tribulation  he  worked  so  strenuously  to  found 
the  Memorial  Church  of  Springfield,  and  even  the 
formal  statement  of  belief  of  that  church  retains 
some  declarations  that  probably  he  would  later  have 
eliminated. 


10 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Publication  of  "  Kathrina  "— Dr.  Holland's  Doctrine  of  Art 
a  Ministry— Sudden  Death  in  October,  1881— Poetical 
Tributes  of  E.  C.  Stedman  and  Dr.  Gladden. 

In  1867  be  published  his  poem  "Kathrina,"  and 
again  it  was  said  the  book  violated  the  canons  of  art, 
in  spite  of  which  it  at  once  attained  an  almost  un- 
precedented sale,  Longfellow's  "Hiawatha"  only  hav- 
ing surpassed  it,  showing  that  a  multitude  of  people 
found  something  in  it  that  met  their  spiritual  wants  ; 
but  again  those  persons  who  could  not  separate  the 
artist  from  the  man  could  not  make  up  their  minds 
whether  Dr.  Holland  had  turned  Unitarian  or  Cath- 
olic. Certain  they  were  that  he  was  not  plain  old- 
fashioned  "orthodox." 

Two  years  before  this  he  had  said  in  a  lecture  on 
"Art  and  Life:"  "The  multitude  acknowledge  that 
they  know  nothing  of  art.  They  see  an  old  paint- 
ing that  they  would  hesitate  to  give  a  dollar  for  at 
an  auction  shop  sold  for  a  hundred  guineas, — 'a 
phantom  of  delight,'  to  critics  and  connoisseurs, — 
and  they  shake  their  heads  in  profound  calf-distrust. 


THE   PURPOSE   OF   ART  147 

They  see  a  select  few  go  into  raptures  over  the  long- 
drawn,  dreary  iterations  and  reiterations  of  a  sym- 
phony, and  confess  that  they  know  nothing  of  music. 
They  read  a  literary  performance  which  stirs  and 
inspires  them — which  elevates  and  enlarges  them — 
which  fills  them  with  delight  and  satisfaction,  and 
are  shocked  and  chagrined  to  learn,  at  the  end  of 
the  month,  by  the  shrewd  critic  of  the  review,  that 
they  have  been  so  vulgar  as  to  be  pleased  with  some- 
thing that  tramples  on  every  rule  of  art." 

Just  before  "Kathrina"  appeared,  Taine  had  put 
forth  his  great  work  on  art,  in  which  he  says  :  "Art 
can  have  no  moral  purpose  " — and  certainly  it  made 
no  difference  what  form  Dr.  Holland's  literary  work 
took — editorial,  lecture,  story,  or  poem — there  was 
always  the  sermon  in  it,  and,  to  quote  Mr.  Gladden, 
"if  Taine's  dictum  is  true,  then  certainly  Dr.  Hol- 
land was  not  distinctively  an  artist ;  but  then  with 
equal  certainty  there  is  something  higher  than  art. 
If  the  poem  or  the  novel  that  sets  forth  the  ideals  of 
high  morality,  and  urges  man  toward  them,  is  in  bad 
literary  form,  then  Dr.  Holland's  work  must  be  pro- 
nounced defective  from  the  stand-point  of  criticism. 
.  .  .  Dr.  Holland  had  his  own  theory  of  literary 
art,  a  theory  carefully  worked  out  in  'Kathrina,' 
and  it  is  very  different  from  that  of  Taine.  It  was, 
in  short,  that  art  is  not  for  pleasure  but  for  ministry; 
that  it  is  degraded  and  accursed  when  it  finds  no 


148  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

end  beyond  itself.  The  words  of  Kathrina,  spoken 
to  her  husband,  express  the  author's  deliberate 
judgment  on  this  point : 

<<  c  Every  gift 
That  God  bestows  on  men  holds  in  itself 
The  secret  of  its  office,  like  the  rake 
The  gardener  wields.     The  rake  was  made  to  till — 
Was  fashioned,  head  and  handle,  for  just  that; 
And  if,  by  grace  of  God  you  hold  a  gift 
So  fashioned  and  adapted,  that  it  stands 
In  like  relation  of  supremest  use 
To  life  of  men,  the  office  of  your  gift 
Has  perfect  definition.     Gift  like  this 
Is  yours,  my  husband.     In  your  facile  hands 
God  placed  it  for  the  service  of  himself 
In  service  of  your  kind.     Taking  this  gift 
And  using  it  for  God  and  for  the  world, 
In  your  own  way  and  in  your  own  best  way  ; 
Seeking  for  light  and  knowledge  everywhere 
To  guide  your  careful  hand,  and  opening  wide 
To  spiritual  influx  all  your  soul 
That  so  your  Master  may  breathe  into  you, 
And  breathe  His  great  life  through  you,  in  such  forms 
Of  pure  presentment  as  he  gives  you  skill 
To  build  withal— that's  all  of  art — for  you. 
Art  is  an  instrument,  and  not  an  end — 
A  servant,  not  a  master,  nor  a  god 
To  be  bowed  down  to.' 

"Holding  that  theory  of  literary  art,  whatever 
else  you  may  say  about  him,  you  cannot  deny  that 
his  methods  were  intelligently  chosen  and  consist- 


LIFE   AT   BONNIE-CASTLE  149 

ently  followed.  Of  course  there  is  nothing  original 
in  all  this.  The  notion  of  what  gifts  are  for  is  bor- 
rowed from  a  very  old  Book ;  it  is  the  application 
to  the  work  of  the  writer  of  the  Master's  'I  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister  ;'  'I  am 
among  you  as  he  that  serveth.'  It  is  the  Christian 
law  and  the  Christian  motive  extended  into  the 
world  of  letters." 

Life  seemed  to  have  brought  all  its  affluence  of 
enjoyment  to  Dr.  Holland.  All  the  dreams  of  his 
boyhood  and  all  the  aspirations  of  his  ambitious 
youth  had  "  come  true."  He  was  the  owner  of  a 
beautiful  home  that  had  become  one  of  the  choice 
social  centres  of  New  York  ;  there  he  was  surrounded 
by  a  family  who  delighted  in  him,  and  in  the  con- 
tinued and  cumulative  success  of  his  magazine.  He 
had  built  his  charming  summer  retreat  of  Bonnie- 
Castle,  and  had  won  a  circle  of  admiring  friends 
in  the  Thousand  Islands  community — his  income  was 
so  ample  that  he  could  gratify  every  fancy,  whether 
it  was  the  buying  of  a  boat  or  a  fine  picture,  or  the 
helping  of  a  struggling  congregation  to  build  a  com- 
modious church — the  cup  of  life  seemed  brimming 
over  with  delights,  when  from  out  the  smiling  skies 
there  came  a  voice  that  he  could  not  gainsay. 

A  sudden  dart  of  the  cruel  pain  called  by  the  old 
pathologists  a  "  breast-pang,"  most  pathetic  but  ac- 
curate appellation,  arrested  his  attention  ;  repeated, 


150  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

it  sent  him  to  an  accomplished  diagnostic  special- 
ist ;  "  angina  pectoris,"  he  Latinized  it,  but  the  poor 
victim,  having  himself  studied  medicine,  was  de- 
prived of  any  life-prolonging  mystifications,  and  he 
clearly  understood  that  though  life  might  be  pro- 
longed by  prudence,  science  has  as  yet  found  no  cure 
for  the  trouble.  No  more  lecturing — the  nervous 
strain  was  too  great — no  sudden  or  violent  effort,  the 
pace  henceforth  must  be  with  careful  measured  tread. 
Every  imaginative  writer  must  find  some  isolation 
in  which  fancy  can  weave  her  fairy  web,  and  every 
editor  is  beset  with  interruptions  innumerable,  and 
the  men  who  combine  the  two  must  perforce  have 
two  "  dens."  Long  before  Sa'ibner's  had  taken 
possession  of  its  spacious  quarters  at  Union  Square, 
Dr.  Holland  had  converted  the  top  story  of  his 
house,  where  a  billiard-room  had  been  planned, 
into  a  library  and  workshop.  Its  outlook  was  to 
the  east,  and  before  a  sunny  window  was  planted 
a  convenient  work-a-day  desk.  In  this  quiet  eyrie, 
above  the  noise  and  dust  of  the  street,  Dr.  Holland 
wrote  his  "continued"  stories  and  many  of  his  " Top- 
ics of  the  Time."  We  fancy  that  at  that  desk  he 
penned  this  from  "Arthur  Bonhicastle  : "  "Com- 
fort of  a  certain  sort  there  may  be,  in  ease  and  in  the 
gratification  of  that  which  is  sensuous  and  sensual 
in  human  nature  ;  but  happiness  is  never  a  lazy 
man's  dower,  nor  a  sensualist's  privilege.     That  is 


FOUR   YEARS   OF   FACING   DEATH        151 

reserved  for  the  worker,  and  can  never  be  grasped 
and  held,  save  by  true  manhood  and  true  woman- 
hood. It  was  a  great  lesson  to  learn,  and  it  was 
learned  for  a  lifetime  ;  for,  in  this  eventide  of  life, 
with  the  power  to  rest,  I  find  no  joy  like  that  which 
comes  to  me  at  the  table  on  which,  day  after  day, 
I  write  the  present  record." 

Immediately  after  what  he  called  the  reading  of 
his  death-warrant  he  resolutely  set  about  arranging 
his  business  affairs,  making  his  will,  and  extricating 
his  assets  from  what  may  be  called  entanglement. 
His  pastor  at  Alexandria  Bay,  to  whom  he  was  af- 
fectionately attached,  writes:  "His  end  was  not  on 
the  morning  when  he  died  ;  it  was  in  the  four  years 
of  silent  suffering,  of  imminent  danger,  of  certain 
approaching  death."  Still  he  went  undauntedly 
forth,  looking  death  steadily  in  the  face,  and  ac- 
complishing each  daily  task  precisely  as  if  no 
shadow  of  a  sword  projected  itself  across  the  sunny 
window,  whence  he  saw  a  world  that  seemed  full  of 
charms.  He  wrote  to  Mr.  De  Vries  :  "  I  trust  if  the 
change  comes  I  may  be  ready  for  it.  Life  is  so 
sweet  and  significant  to  me  that,  whenever  I  go  I 
shall  cast  '  one  loving,  lingering,  look  behind.' " 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  11th  of  October,  1881, 
he  sat  at  his  desk  in  the  office  of  Scribner's,  and  was 
busily  engaged  in  writing  an  article  on  President 
Garfield's  death  for  the  next  issue  of  the  magazine. 


152  JOSIAH    GILBERT  HOLLAND 

He  had  been  so  careful  of  his  health  that  it  was  a 
long  time  since  he  had  any  sharp  reminders  of  the 
tenuity  of  the  silver  cord,  and  on  this  afternoon  had 
been  to  another  floor  of  the  building  to  see  some  of 
La  Farge's  fine  productions  in  colored  glass,  and  he 
declined  an  invitation  to  ride  to  his  home,  as  he  felt 
"just  in  the  writing  mood,"  and  the  last  words  he 
had  penned  might  have  been  his  own  true  epitaph. 
He  said,  referring  to  Garfield,  "  his  sympathy  with 
the  humble  drew  to  him  the  hearts  of  the  world." 
His  family  thought  him  unusually  bright  and  happy 
at  the  tea-table. 

About  six  o'clock  the  next  morning  he  wakened 
Mrs.  Holland  with  a  groan  so  piercing  that  it  be- 
trayed mortal  agony,  became  unconscious,  and  be- 
fore anyone  else  could  reach  him  was  gone. 

"  He  passed  through  glory's  morning  gate 
And  woke  in  Paradise." 

Was  not  this  a  true  euthanasia?  To-day,  in  the 
midst  of  the  hurrying*  crowds  that  jostle  each  other 
in  the  streets  of  New  York,  and  to-morrow,  walking 
in  the  "  green  pastures  and  beside  the  still  waters," 
led  by  the  hand  of  the  God  in  whom  he  had  trusted 
utterly.  To  his  family  the  shock  was  of  the  sort 
that  no  writing  can  ever  describe,  but  after  the  ter- 
rible poignancy  of  the  loss  was  assuaged  by  the 
gentle  ministry  of  time  they  could  see  that  it  was 


V 


^ 


TRIBUTE   OF    STEDMAN  153 

better  thus.  Possibly  he  would  have  chosen  this 
way  in  spite  of  the  instinctive  recoil  from  "  sudden 
death."  There  was  no  outward  perceptible  slow  de- 
cay. He  was  in  the  plenitude  of  his  mental  powers 
and  stood  on  the  threshold  of  new  plans,  full  of 
glorious  promise,  when  God  sent  His  swift,  strong 
angel  and  rapt  him  from  the  sight  of  his  beloved. 
Perhaps  the  sad  pleasure  of  a  final  conscious  "  fare- 
well "  belongs  more  to  the  grieving  survivors  than 
to  the  parting  soul ;  and  in  reviewing  the  career  of 
this  man,  who  in  the  sphere  that  God  had  marked 
out  for  him  gave  a  ceaseless  example  of  high  living, 
we  cannot  but  think  that  this  swift  summons  was  a 
merciful  way  of  bringing  him  into  the  presence  of 
that  Master  who  to  him  was  a  living,  daily,  hourly 
inspiration  and  example. 

The  morning  papers  of  October  12,  1881,  on  both 
sides  of  the  ocean,  brought  the  news  to  thousands  of 
households  that  a  voice  to  which  they  had  loved  to 
listen  would  be  heard  on  earth  thenceforth  no  more, 
and  among  many  beautiful  tributes,  E.  C.  Stedman 
wrote  that  which  aptly  described  the  man  and  his 

parting. 

J.  O.  K 

"  Multis  ille  bonis  flebilis  occidit."— Hor.,  Carm.,  I.,  24. 
*'  Who  knew  him,  loved  him.     His  the  longing  heart 

For  what  his  youth  had  missed,  his  manhood  known — 
The  haunts  of  Song,  the  fellowship  of  Art — 
And  all  their  kin  he  strove  to  make  his  own. 


154  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

"  But  his  the  good  true  heart  not  thus  content  : 
The  words  that  fireside  groups  at  eve  repeat, 
He  spoke  or  sang :   and  far  his  sayings  went, 
And  simple  households  found  his  music  sweet. 

*'  So  Heaven  was  kind  and  gave  him  naught  to  grieve. 
Among  his  loved  he  woke  at  morn  from  rest — 
One  smile — one  pang — and  gained  betimes  his  leave 
Ere  strength  had  lost  its  use,  or  life  its  zest." 

On  the  Friday  afternoon  following,  a  simple  fun- 
eral service  was  held  in  the  dear  earthly  perfect 
home  by  Drs.  Bevan  and  Murray,  who  had  both 
been  his  pastors  in  the  Brick  Church,  and  then  the 
"earthly  house"  was  taken  to  Springfield,  Mass., 
and  laid  by  tender  hands  to  rest  amid  the  scenes 
that  had  witnessed  his  early  struggles  and  his  later 
triumphs,  and  in  sight  of  the  Mount  Holyoke,  that 
formed  the  mental  background  to  all  his  early  in- 
tellectual life.     Dr.  Gladden  wrote  of  it — 

"  Mountain  that  watchest  down  the  vale 

Most  like  a  couchant  lion — 
Wide,  winding  river,  whose  fair  breast 

Soft  south  winds  gently  die  on — 
Lift  up  the  head  ;  flow  still  and  slow ; 

Let  no  chill  blast  now  chide  you  ; 
For  one  who  loved  you  long  ago 

Lies  down  to  sleep  beside  you. 

*'  You  nursed  within  his  boyish  heart 
The  springing  love  of  beauty  ; 


DE.   GLADDEN' S   POEM  155 

You  taught  him,  by  your  steadfast  ways, 

The  deeper  love  of  duty  ; 
Your  shade  and  shine  about  him  lay 

In  life's  abundant  labor  ; 
And  now  the  mound  that  holds  his  dust 

Shall  be  your  lowly  neighbor. 

"  A  good,  brave  man,  a  blameless  man, 

He  lived  and  wrought  among  us  ; 
The  truth  he  taught,  the  tales  he  told, 

The  heart-songs  that  he  sung  us, 
All  shine  with  white  sincerity, 

All  thrill  with  strong  conviction  ; 
His  words  were  seeds  of  honest  deeds, 

His  life  a  benediction. 

"  The  art  he  loved  was  not  the  art 

That  finds  its  end  in  pleasing  ; 
He  loved  to  help  and  serve  and  bless 

With  toil  and  care  unceasing ; 
No  gift,  he  said,  its  fruit  hath  borne 

Until  with  love  'tis  mated  ; 
No  art  is  high,  no  art  is  pure, 

That  is  not  consecrated. 

"  And  thus,  with  kindly  souls  who  pass 

Through  Baca's  vale  of  weeping, 
Beside  whose  way  the  fountains  play, 

Joy-bringing,  verdure-keeping, 
From  strength  to  strength  this  pilgrim  went, 

With  grace  that  ne'er  forsook  him. 
Till  suddenly,  at  break  of  day, 

He  was  not,  for  God  took  him. 


156  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

"  We  tell  our  loss,  Tre  bear  our  pain, 

Still  thankful  hearts  upraising — 
For  life  so  large  and  fruit  so  fair 

Our  God  the  giver  praising. 
The  heart  must  bleed,  the  tears  must  fall, 

But  smiles  through  tear-drops  glitter  ; 
We  drink  the  cup,  and  grateful  find 

The  sweet  within  the  bitter. 

u  O  mountain  !  guard  his  precious  dust  ; 
O  river  I  seaward  flowing, 
By  night  your  softest  dews  bestow 

To  keep  the  grasses  growing 
That  ever,  with  the  bitter  sweet 
His  sacred  grave  shall  cover — 
Servant  of  man  and  friend  of  God, 
Brave  thinker,  steadfast  lo^er." 
October  11,  1881. 

During  the  summer  previous  to  his  death  he  had 
been  much  interested  and  engrossed  in  the  prep- 
arations making  for  the  marriage  of  his  oldest 
daughter  to  Mr.  John  Kasson  Howe,  of  Troy,  N.  Y., 
which  was  to  take  place  in  the  autumn,  and  Helen 
Hunt — many  of  w7hose  precious  poems  were  first 
printed  in  Scribners,  wrote  on  the  day  of  his  death  : 

I. 

"  We  may  not  choose  !     Ah,  if  we  might,  how  we 
Should  linger  here,  not  ready  to  be  dead, 
Till  one  more  loving  thing  were  looked,  or  said — 
Till  some  dear  child's  estate  of  joy  should  be 


HELEX    HUNT'S   TRIBUTE  157 

Complete — or  we,  triumphant,  late,  should  see 

Some  great  cause  win,  for  which  our  hearts  had  bled — 

Some  hope  come  true  which  all  our  lives  had  fed — 

Some  bitter  sorrow  fade  away  and  flee, 

Which  we,  rebellious,  had  too  bitter  thought ; 

Or  even — so  our  human  hearts  would  cling, 

If  but  they  might,  to  this  fair  world  inwrought 

With  heavenly  beauty  in  each  smallest  thing  — 

We  would  refuse  to  die  till  we  had  sought 

One  violet  more,  heard  one  more  robin  sing ! 


II. 


41  We  may  not  choose  ;  but  if  we  did  foreknow 
The  hour  when  we  should  pass  from  human  sight, 
What  words  were  last  that  we  should  say,  or  write, 
Could  we  pray  fate  a  sweeter  boon  to  show 
Than  bid  our  last  words  barn  with  loving  glow 
Of  heart-felt  praise,  to  lift,  and  make  more  bright 
A  great  man's  memory,  set  in  clearer  light  ? 
Ah  yes  !     Fate  could  one  boon  more  sweet  bestow  : — 
So  frame  those  words  that  every  heart  which  knew 
Should,  sudden,  awe-struck,  weeping  turn  away 
And  cry  :   k  His  own  hand  his  best  wreath  must  lay  ! 
Of  his  own  life  his  own  last  words  are  true- 
So  true,  love's  truth  no  truer  thing  can  say — 
11  By  sympathy  all  hearts  to  him  he  drew."  '  " 

Helen  Hunt  Jackson  was  born  six  miles  from 
where  Dr.  Holland  first  opened  bis  eves  upon  life. 
Her  fatber  was  a  distinguished  professor  in  Am- 
herst  College — a   brilliant   member  of  the   "Xew 


158  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

England  Brahmin  caste  " — when  the  obscure  boy's 
heart  was  bitter  from  the  obstructed  ambition  that 
in  vain  urged  him  toward  entering  the  classic  halls 
of  the  college.  It  is  an  instructive  comment  on  the 
allotments  of  human  destiny  that,  long  years  after, 
the  professor's  gifted  child  should  bring  her  literary 
productions — each  one  "  a  gem  of  purest  ray  " — to 
this  foreordained  editor  for  judgment  and  publi- 
cation. She  found  in  him  a  sympathetic  friend  as 
well  as  an  appreciative  literary  judge.  As  her 
mind  ripened,  and  still  more,  as  she  consciously 
approached  the  shores  of  the  silent  sea — and,  look- 
ing backward  over  the  track  already  passed,  she 
weighed  things  justly — she  said,  "  Only  what  I  have 
done  with  a  moral  purpose  seems  now  of  any  worth 
to  me,"  and  she  found  it  possible  to  fully  read  and 
estimate  a  character  and  career  whose  pre-eminent 
distinction  was  the  exaltation  of  the  moral. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Memorial  Services — In  Springfield,  New  York,  Alexandria 
Bay,  and  Belchertown — Eulogies  of  Edward  Eggleston, 
George  S.  Merriam,  and  Others— Dr.  Be  van's  Sermon — 
Discourse  of  Rev.  P.  W.  Lyman. 

On  the  Sunday  evening  after  the  burial  (October 
16th)  a  Memorial  Service  was  held  in  the  Memorial 
Church  of  Springfield,  of  which  he  had  been  one  of 
the  founders  when  it  required  high  moral  courage 
to  be  a  positive  and  aggressive  "founder."  Now, 
after  sixteen  years,  the  thought  of  the  world  had 
broadened  and  risen,  approximately,  to  the  place 
where  he  had  stood  then,  and  men  of  all  creeds  and 
callings  came  together  to  do  honor  to  a  stainless 
memory.  Dr.  Eustis,  pastor  of  the  church,  con- 
ducted the  services,  assisted  by  Rev.  Dr.  Terhune, 
Rev.  J.  W.  Harding,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Gladden.  A 
letter  of  regret  from  Rev.  Dr.  R.  H.  Seeley,  of 
Haverhill,  and  a  telegram  from  President  Porter,  of 
Yale,  both  former  pastors  of  Dr.  Holland,  were  read. 
Dr.  Eustis  said  that  Dr.  Holland  was  a  remarkably 
successful  man  ;  that  during  his  life  he  had  accom- 
plished nearly  every  desire  of  his  heart.     But  there 


160  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

was  one  that  was  not  gratified,  namely,  that  he 
might  write  a  hymn  which  should  be  sung  in  all  the 
churches.  He  proposed  that  the  Thanksgiving- 
hymn  from  "Bitter-Sweet,"  sung  to  the  tune  of 
"Duke  Street,"  would  be  a  worthy  one  to  sing  on 
the  present  occasion. 

"  For  summer's  bloom  and  autumn's  blight, 
For  bending  wheat  and  blasted  maize, 
For  health  and  sickness,  Lord  of  light 
And  Lord  of  darkness,  hear  our  praise. 

"  We  trace  to  Thee  our  joys  and  woes — 
To  Thee  of  causes  still  the  cause  : 
We  thank  Thee  that  Thy  hand  bestows ; 
We  bless  Thee  that  Thy  love  withdraws. 

"  We  bring  no  sorrows  to  Thy  throne  ; 
We  come  to  Thee  witli  no  complaint, 
In  Providence  Thy  will  is  done, 
And  that  is  sacred  to  the  saint." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Buckingham  was  the  pastor  who 
had  advised  Dr.  Holland  to  go  to  the  North  Church 
in  1854,  as  a  place  where  his  influence  would  tell 
more  powerfully  than  in  the  very  thoroughly  estab- 
lished and  conservative  church  over  which  he  was 
himself  then  settled.  Among  other  things  Dr.  Buck- 
ingham called  attention  to  his  services  as  the  leader 
of  the  choir,  in  their  essential  element  of  an  act  of 
praise,  and   said  he  was  a  pure-minded,   conscien- 


REMARKS    OF   MR.    MERRIAM  161 

tious  and  useful  church  member,  and  all  who  have 
ever  been  associated  with  him  in  such  relations  can 
bear  the  freest  testimony  in  this  respect  to  his 
singular  simplicity,  to  his  tender  piety,  to  his  con- 
scientious fidelity,  and  generous  liberality  in  all  the 
relations  he  sustained  to  these  churches,  and  to 
religious  effort  in  this  city.  It  should  be  noted  that 
while  he  was  jealous  of  the  religious  liberty  of 
others,  and  championed  their  claims  so  manfully,  he 
never  needed  indulgence  for  heresy  of  his  own.  He 
believed  in  the  Bible,  and  he  adored  and  trusted  in 
Jesus  Christ  as  the  only  Saviour  of  men. 

Mr.  George  S.  Merriam  said  :  "  It  was  the  especial 
distinction  of  Dr.  Holland  that  he  used  the  news- 
paper's power  to  serve  the  preacher's  purpose.  As  a 
moral  teacher  he  found  a  weapon  superior  to  the 
old,  as  a  rifle  is  superior  to  a  cross-bow,  or  a  loco- 
motive to  a  stage-coach.  No  less  did  he  enlarge  and 
ennoble  the  function  of  journalism  by  putting  it  to 
a  new  and  higher  use.  He  showed  that  a  news- 
paper might  do  something  more  than  tell  the  news  ; 
something  besides  discuss  what  is  doing  at  Wash- 
ington ;  something  more,  even,  than  to  act  as  guide 
and  judge  in  literature  and  art  and  public  affairs. 
He  used  the  daily  or  the  monthly  journal  to  purify 
and  sweeten  the  fountains  of  personal  and  family 
life.     .     .     .     He  was  faithful  to  the  light  that  was 

in  him ;  he  was  open-eyed  and  sensitive  to  the  con- 
11 


162  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

ditions  of  the  time  ;  lie  met  the  opportunity  as  it 
offered  ;  and  thus  he  did  what  was  given  him  to  do. 
He  did  a  work  large  in  itself,  large  in  the  impress  it 
left  on  two  great  periodicals ;  large  as  the  omen  of 
the  nobler  work  to  be  done  by  the  press,  an  in- 
stance of  the  new  and  greater  channels  through 
which  God  fulfils  his  purposes." 

Dr.  Eggleston,  who  had  known  him  intimately  as 
the  editor-in-chief  of  Scixibne?',s,  traced  the  connec- 
tion between  the  later  growth  of  Dr.  Holland  and 
the  vicissitudes  of  his  early  life:  'He  had  despair- 
ingly thought  in  his  young  manhood  that  the  world 
had  no  place  for  him  ;  had  tried  several  things  and 
failed,  like  many  a  young  man  passing  through 
similar  struggles  to-day,  who  is  destined  to  play  an 
important  part  in  the  world.  People  often  wonder 
that  they  have  not  recognized  such  men  before.  It 
is  always  perfectly  safe  to  be  kind  and  not  to  snub 
a  young  and  ambitious  man.  We  should  make  a 
little  smoother  and  a  little  sweeter  and  better,  if  we 
can,  the  pathway  of  a  struggling,  ambitious,  and 
sensitive  young  man,  such  as  Dr.  Hollaud  was  in 
those  earlier  years.  The  trials  of  this  period,  how- 
ever, only  served  to  strengthen  and  develop  the 
man." 

Mr.  Roswell  Smith — his  coadjutor  in  establishing 
the  Magazine — said,  in  part :  "  Dr.  Holland  was  a  man 
who  decided  the  most  important  questions  with  al- 


163 

most  lightning  rapidity.  I  never  saw  a  man  whose 
decisions  on  important  questions  were  so  instan- 
taneous. He  used  to  say,  'I  put  my  confidence  in 
men  rather  than  things.' 

"Dr.  Holland  knew  that  he  had  often  been  charged 
with  a  want  of  orthodoxy.  He  used  to  repeat  with 
zest  the  story  of  a  Springfield  clergyman  who, 
when  absent  from  home,  was  asked  what  were  Dr. 
Holland's  religious  opinions.  '  Have  you  read  Dr. 
Holland's  books  and  can  you  not  learn  his  beliefs 
there  ? '  The  answer  was,  '  Yes,  I've  read  his  books, 
but  first  I  come  across  something  that  makes  me 
think  he  is  a  Unitarian,  and  then  I  read  on  and 
find  something  that  leads  me  to  think  that  he  is  a 
"  Christian  !  "  '  .  .  .  .  Dr.  Holland  appreciated 
the  fact  that  he  was  a  misunderstood  man,  and  that 
he  was  credited  with  holding  sentiments  and  the 
advocating  of  views  that  he  thoroughly  abhorred  ; 
and  one  motive,  he  said,  in  starting  a  literary  maga- 
zine was,  that  he  might  set  himself  right  on  the 
record. 

"  No  man  held  the  clerical  profession  in  higher 
esteem  than  Dr.  Holland.  Indeed  his  estimate  of 
it  was  so  high  and  his  desire  that  it  should  attain 
the  highest  usefulness  was  such  that  it  led  him  to 
be  impatient  with  its  defects ;  and  the  same  is  true 
of  his  love  for  the  Church,  and  his  respect  for  the 
prayer-meeting.     He  felt  that  these  were  the  hope 


164  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

of  the  world,  and  he  could  not  tolerate  stupidity  or 
intolerance  in  either  the  one  or  the  other.  Ministers 
had  no  truer  friend  than  he,  and  very  many  of 
them  recognized  it  and  held  him  in  the  highest 
regard.  No  minister  ever  came  to  him  to  consult 
him  about  leaving  his  chosen  profession  and  going 
into  literature,  or  into  any  other  pursuit,  but  Dr. 
Holland  turned  him  back  and  exhorted  him  with 
the  greatest  earnestness  to  stick  to  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  as  the  highest  earthly  calling. 

"  The  whole  generation  of  men  of  the  age  of  Dr. 
Gladden,  Dr.  Eggleston,  and  myself,  who  were  ten 
years  younger  than  Dr.  Holland,  read  his  earlier 
works  with  the  greatest  interest,  and  we  feel  that 
we  owe  to  him  a  debt  of  gratitude  which  we  can 
never  repay  for  the  influence  he  exercised  upon  our 
lives." 

On  the  same  evening  in  which  this  general 
Memorial  Service  was  held,  and  at  which  his  poem 
was  read,  Dr.  Gladden  preached  a  memorial  sermon 
in  the  church  with  which  Dr.  Holland  had  been 
united  for  eleven  years,  from  the  text,  "  I  am  among 
you  as  he  that  servetb."  After  having  dwelt  upon 
all  the  services  rendered  in  his  capacity  of  commit- 
tee-man and  general  promoter  of  the  interests  of 
the  church  he  spoke  of  Dr.  Holland's  singing  : 

"  It  was  quite  evident  to  one  who  saw  and  heard 
him  singing,  that  it   was  something  more  than  a 


MORAL   ELEMENT   OF  HIS   WORKS        165 

performance — that  it  was  worship."  After  a  careful 
estimate  of  his  literary  work,  and  in  answer  to 
some  of  the  critics,  Dr.  Gladden  said :  "  At  any  rate, 
it  is  enough  to  say  that  he  understood  what  he  was 
about  when  he  wrote  novels  with  a  purpose.  And 
it  must  be  admitted  by  everybody  that  his  purposes 
were  high  and  pure  ;  that  the  blows  he  struck  with 
this  good  weapon  of  fiction  were  telling  blows. 
The  same  thing  is  true  of  his  poems.  All  of  his 
principal  poems  take  hold  of  great  themes,  deal  with 
the  great  interests  of  character  and  the  great  spirit- 
ual laws.  We  may  not  agree  with  him  in  all  the 
lessons  that  he  seeks  to  teach  in  these  poems — I 
own  that  I  do  not ; — but  we  cannot  deny  the  lofty 
purpose  and  the  earnest  thought  that  pulsate  through 
them  all.  Whatever  we  may  say  of  their  philos- 
ophy, the  spirit  that  animates  them  is  large  and 
free. 

"  When  I  thus  exalt  the  moral  and  religious  ele- 
ment that  characterizes  all  that  Dr.  Holland  wrote, 
I  would  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  denying  to  his 
stories  and  poems  that  quality  which  the  pagan 
critics  insist  upon,  the  power  of  giving  pleasure  ; 
not  only  in  the  felicitous  and  picturesque  rhetoric 
and  the  stirring  music  of  his  words,  but  also  in  his 
quick  insight  into  character,  and  his  happy  de- 
lineations of  men  and  manners  he  has  delighted  a 
great  multitude  of  readers.     In  his   stories   espe- 


166  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

cially,  while  he  has  always  aimed  at  some  high  pur- 
pose, he  has  succeeded  in  imparting  a  great  deal  of 
pleasure,  not  only  to  those  who  read  for  the  plot, 
but  also  to  those  who  enjoy  the  unfolding  of  char- 
acter and  the  rei^resentation  of  life. 

"  He  had  a  quick  and  sure  intuition  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  time.  He  knew  what  men  were 
thinking  about.  He  discerned  the  difficulties  of 
the  average  thinker,  the  problems  with  which  he  was 
struggling,  and  he  knew  how,  with  deft  and  homely 
phrase,  to  put  him  on  the  track  of  a  right  solution. 
This  was  one  great  secret  of  his  success  as  a  writer 
and,  especially,  as  an  editor.  ...  To  all  these 
problems  he  brought  not  only  a  shrewd  common- 
sense,  but  an  uncompromising  idealism.  '  Ideals,' 
he  said,  'are  the  world's  masters.'  .  .  .  That 
which  is  godlike  in  men  goes  ahead  of  them,  into 
some  form  of  their  own  choosing,  to  beckon  them 
toward  perfection  and  to  lead  them  toward  God. 
Certainly  this  was  true  of  him.  His  ideals  of  right, 
and  truth,  and  purity  ruled  all  his  thinking,  shaped 
all  his  teaching. 

"  He  was  a  true  and  generous  friend.  With  quick 
sympathies  and  warm  enthusiasms,  he  was  always 
ready  to  bear  the  burdens  of  others,  and  his  hearty 
wrords  and  painstaking  services  have  lightened 
many  a  heart. 

"But  I  shall  sum  up  all,  and    explain  all  when 


HIS    CHRISTIANITY  167 

I  say  that  Dr.  Holland  was  a  Christian  roan.  The 
sincere  and  manly  faith  in  God,  and  in  his  Son 
Jesus  Christ,  which  he  was  never  ashamed  to  con- 
fess, was  the  plastic  force  by  which  his  character 
was  formed,  his  purposes  were  shaped.  All  that 
I  have  said  about  him  is  but  an  expansion  of  this 
sentence.  .  .  .  He  was  a  servant  of  the  Master 
who  went  about  doing  good.  .  .  .  With  the 
people  whose  religion  is  nothing  but  '  orthodoxy,' 
to  whom  the  formularies  of  doctrine  are  more  than 
the  fruits  of  character,  he  found  it  hard  to  have 
patience.  '  A  Christianity  which  consists  only  of 
opinions,'  he  said  not  long  ago,  'is  a  very  shabby 
article,  and  we  do  not  pretend  to  believe  in  it.  The 
Christianity  which  is  a  divine  life,  a  divine  inspira- 
tion, and  a  divine  hope  is  so  inexpressibly  dear  to 
so  many  people,  it  is  such  a  help  to  them  in  tbeir 
struggles  with  their  grosser  nature,  it  gives  to  life 
and  to  death  so  stupendous  a  meaning,  it  is  such  a 
comfort  in  trouble  and  sorrow  and  in  burden-bear- 
ing, that  we  should  need  to  be  inhuman  not  to 
regard  the  efforts  aimed  at  its  overthrow  as  aimed 
at  the  dearest  interests  of  the  human  race.'  It  was 
because  he  believed  with  such  unconquerable  faith 
in  Christianity  as  a  life  and  an  experience  that  his 
wrath  was  kindled  against  the  men  who  sought  to 
dessicate  it  into  formulas,  and  to  cast  out  of  the 
Church  all  holy  and  saintly  servants  of  Christ  who 


168  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

cannot  chew  these  theological  chips.  For  the  ring- 
ing words  that  he  has  uttered  in  defence  of  the 
liberty  that  always  ought  to  be,  where  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is,  the  Church  of  God  remains  his 
debtor." 

On  the  following  Sunday  the  pastor  of  the  church 
at  Alexandria  Bay  preached  a  memorial  sermon  in 
the  church,  that  had  been  greatly  enlarged  and 
beautified  during  the  preceding  summer,  largely 
through  Dr.  Holland's  liberality.  The  text  was, 
"  Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the  upright, 
for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace."  In  commenting 
on  Dr.  Holland's  character  as  exhibited  in  his  sum- 
mer home,  he  said :  "  There  you  found  the  stern 
qualities  that  characterize  the  man  blended  with 
the  gentler  that  form  the  woman.  .  .  .  Dr. 
Holland  was  true  as  steel,  but  transparent  as  crystal. 
.  .  .  When  you  looked  on  that  kindly  counte- 
nance, into  that  clear,  open  eye,  you  felt,  more  than 
understood,  that  that  eye  was  the  mirror  of  a  truth- 
ful soul  ;  that  there  was  sincerity,  simplicity,  com- 
plete guilelessness.  He  knew  no  meanness ;  all 
trickery  was  utterly  foreign  to  him  ;  if  necessary, 
he  would,  as  David  has  it,  swear  to  his  own  hurt 
and  change  not.  And  that  truth-loving  soul  hated 
all  kinds  of  falsehood  and  injustice.  Though  he 
sought  to  save  the  sinner,  yet  he  condemned  his 
sin.     .     .     .     During  the  four  years  of  my  connec- 


HIS    MELODIOUS    VOICE  169 

tion  with  Dr.  Holland,  I  have  often  likened  him  to 
John,  the  apostle  of  love.  He  adorned  the  doctrine 
of  Christ  with  all  the  gentler  graces. 

"  Of  his  love  to  human-kind  I  need  not  speak. 
.  .  .  He  once  said  to  me,  'I  have  worked  eveiy 
day  for  forty  years  and  worked  hard.'  .  .  .  That 
busy  brain  of  his  was  always  observing,  always 
taking  in  actual  life  ;  the  street,  the  store,  the  office, 
were  his  school,  and  that  busy  pen  of  his  hurried 
over  the  paper  to  give  lessons  to  millions  of  souls. 
.  .  .  Often  and  eloquently  did  he  preach  ser- 
mons to  millions  — sermons  that  must  have  saved 
lost  sons  and  lost  daughters,  .  .  .  and  to  all 
he  taught  the  true  philosophy  of  faith,  the  true 
way  of  life.  And  all  this  because  of  his  love  of 
God.  The  love  of  God  was  with  him  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end.  The  word  of  God  was  his  book 
of  life  ;  the  house  of  God  a  house  of  feasting  ;  the 
people  of  God  his  brothers  and  sisters  ;  the  day  of 
the  Lord  a  day  of  rest  and  gladness.  His  presence 
in  the  sanctuary  was  an  inspiration  to  his  pastor 
and  to  all  that  could  see  him.  To  hear  him  sing 
in  that  melodious  tenor,  so  distinctly  pronouncing 
every  word  with  that  deep  feeling  and  wonderful 
pathos,  was  a  delight  to  the  ear,  but  more  so  to 
the  soul.  One  day,  singing  that  beautiful  hymn, 
'Gentle  Jesus,  how  I  love  thee!'  I  was  struck 
with  the  pathos  in  his  singing.     The  way  in  which 


170  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

he  sang  it — the  deep  feeling,  the  tearful  eye — were  a 
revelation  of  the  Christ-loving  soul  within.  .  .  . 
He  enjoyed  life.,  his  life-work  was  yielding  precious 
rewards  ;  he  had  all  that  life  could  give,  and  he 
had  every  faculty  unimpaired,  keen,  and  healthy  to 
enjoy  it.  Then  there  came  the  messenger,  saying, 
'  Prepare  thy  house,  for  thou  shalt  die  ;  '  and  his 
answer,  not  in  so  many  words  but  in  every  action 
was,  '  Lord,  I  am  ready ;  thy  time  is  my  time  ; 
thy  will  is  my  will.'  .  .  .  Therefore  let  us 
build  a  memorial  in  this  place,  not  only  of  marble 
in  this  house,  but  of  Christian  manhood  in  our 
hearts,  in  our  homes,  in  our  churches,  in  our  com- 
munity, and  thus  render  thanks  unto  God  who  gave, 
who  hath  taken  away,  whose  name  be  blessed  for- 
evermore." 

During  the  summer  just  then  passed  Dr.  Hol- 
land had  written  a  poem  concerning  a  favorite  dog 
— a  beautiful  white  setter  that  had  become  very 
familiar  to  the  eyes  of  the  Alexandria  Bay  folk,  as 
his  constant  conrpanion.  After  a  tender  tribute  to 
the  loving  fidelity  of  this  dog,  he  closes  in  the  most 
characteristic  way  : 

"  Ah,  Blanco  !  did  I  worship  God, 
As  truly  as  you  worship  me, 
Or  follow  where  my  Master  trod, 
With  your  humility  ; 


171 


"  Did  I  sit  foudly  at  his  feet, 

As  you,  dear  Blanco,  sit  at  mine, 
And  watch  him  with  a  love  as  sweet, 
My  life  would  grow  divine." 

After  the  congregation  had  assembled  for  the 
memorial  service,  and  the  minister  had  named  the 
object  of  the  meeting,  and  spoken  of  the  lost  bene- 
factor and  friend,  this  dog  entered  the  church, 
walked  up  and  down  the  aisles,  looked  at  the 
preacher,  as  much  as  to  say  "  Where  ?  "  and  went 
back.  It  was  but  a  trifling  incident,  that  under 
other  circumstances  would  have  been  considered  a 
disturbing  intrusion  ;  as  it  was,  it  brought  the  quick 
tears  to  many  uuused  eyes. 

On  the  Sabbath  evening  succeeding  the  one  where 
those  who  had  seen  how  a  summer  sojourner  can 
take  his  religion  with  him  into  the  country,  and 
leave  an  impression  of  its  vivifying  power,  Dr. 
Bevan  preached  a  carefully  prepared  memorial  dis- 
course in  the  Brick  Church,  in  New  York,  which  had 
been  elaborately  draped  iu  black  as  a  testimonial  to 
the  loss  this  church  felt  in  the  death  of  the  man 
who  had  faithfully  borne  his  share  in  both  the 
temporalities  and  the  spiritualities  of  the  church 
work  for  the  eleven  years  since  he  had  cast  in  his 
Christian  lot  with  them. 

Dr.  Bevan's  texts  were,  "  He  that  handleth  a 
matter  wisely  shall  find  good  ;   and  whoso  trusteth 


172  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

in   the   Lord,   happy  is  he  ; "   and,   "  A  word  fitly 
spoken  is  like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver." 

He  said  :  "I  shall  not  easily  forget  the  shock 
caused  by  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Dr. 
Holland.  .  .  .  On  the  Sunday  morning  previous 
to  his  death  he  took  his  place  in  the  church,  and 
there,  just  beneath  the  pulpit,  I  saw  the  grave  and 
earnest  countenance,  the  tender  and  responsive  eyes. 
Perhaps  a  little  graver  than  usual  was  the  face,  and 
perhaps  as  I  now  recall  the  eyes  there  was  a  shadow 
that  thinly  veiled  the  light  of  his  outlooking.  And 
yet  this  may  be  only  the  fancy  born  of  our  present 
knowledge  that  death  was  already  at  his  heels,  and 
that  the  communion  service  at  which  he  was  pres- 
ent, on  that  last  Sabbath  morning,  was  soon  to  be 
followed  by  the  summons  to  enter  into  the  higher 
communion  of  the  saints  in  light.  In  the  full 
strength  of  his  mental  powers — with  the  one  ex- 
ception of  those  attacks  of  pain  which  exertion 
brought  on,  all  his  bodily  activities  unabated,  hav- 
ing gained  a  place  of  wide  reputation  and  large 
significance,  wielding  the  peculiar  influence  of  a 
popular  magazine,  conceiving  the  plans  of  new 
labor,  to  accomplish  which  he  felt  himself  more 
able  than  at  any  time  ;  and  yet  with  work  done  and 
rounded  off  with  noteworthy  completeness,  the  call 
came,  and  in  a  moment  he  disappeared  from  the 
eyes  of  love  and  comradeship,  and  the  watch  of  fel- 


HIS   SOCIAL   SIDE  173 

low-toilers,  and  has  left  behind  a  pure  memory, 
a  good  record,  a  healthy  inspiration,  a  name  of 
strength.  It  is  useful  as  it  is  becoming  to  endeavor 
to  understand  something  of  such  a  man's  life,  to 
hear  the  voice  that  speaks  from  the  story  of  charac- 
ter and  achievement  which  a  true  man  leaves  for  us 
to  read  ;  for,  you  may  be  sure,  brethren,  that  God 
sends  a  message  by  each  man's  conduct  and  being. 
The  canon  of  the  inspired  word  of  good  living  is 
never  closed.  And  if  men  are  wise  who  can  read 
the  signs  of  the  times,  surely  there  is  a  wisdom 
which  the  children  of  wisdom  will  justify,  in  study- 
ing the  truth  that  God  has  made  known  and  illus- 
trated in  these  sacraments  and  symbols  of  highest 
wrork — the  lives  of  good  men." 

After  sketching  the  main  facts  of  a  career  less 
familiar  to  Brick  Church  people,  in  virtue  of  their 
being  New  Yorkers,  than  to  New  England  men, 
Dr.  Bevan  showed  a  side  of  life  and  character  that 
we  sometimes  sadly  miss  in  men  of  letters.  "  Busy 
and  absorbed  as  was  Dr.  Holland's  life  in  the  labors 
of  the  writer,  he  was  by  no  means  so  occupied  as  to 
leave  no  place  for  those  other  duties,  private  and 
social,  which  go  to  make  up  the  fulness  and  com- 
pleteness of  our  career.  Into  the  privacy  of  the 
domestic  scene  I  will  not  intrude  ;  but  many  of  you 
know  what  a  husband  and  father  and  friend  this 
man  was.      Nowhere  did  his  fine  form  and  counte- 


174  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

nance  appear  to  better  advantage  than  in  dispensing 
the  courtesies  of  social  life,  and  he  ever  loved  to 
gather  around  him,  not  only  those  who  were  ad- 
mitted to  the  inner  sanctities  of  personal  affection, 
but  the  circles  which  represented  all  shades  of 
opinion  and  all  types  of  culture  and  activity. 

"He  never  neglected  the  duties  of  public  worship, 
and  bore  his  share  of  those  labors  which  sustain  and 
develop  the  church,  .  .  .  and  his  relation  to 
the  church  did  not  become  less  intimate  as  he  grew 
in  wealth  and  influence.  Very  often  men  who  in 
their  early  days  are  good  churchmen,  when  they 
achieve  earthly  success  retire,  at  least  from  the  more 
manifest  and  practical  service  of  religion.  .  .  . 
Surely  the  work  of  the  Lord  is  not  that  which 
should  suffer  at  the  hands  of  those  whom  the  Lord 
is  blessing.  It  was  thus  our  friend  lived  and 
labored.  Always  a  pure,  true,  brave  man  ;  always 
at  his  post ;  always  kindly  sympathetic,  helpful,  he 
fell  with  a  fame  and  reputation  which  no  man  might 
be  unwilling  to  claim. 

"  That  Dr.  Holland's  course  was  one  of  success  no 
one  will  for  a  moment  doubt.  If  a  man's  first  busi- 
ness in  life  is  to  provide  things  honest  in  the  sight 
of  all  men,  both  for  himself  and  his  family,  then, 
certainly,  viewed  from  that  point  of  human  necessity, 
we  can  congratulate  our  friend  upon  his  achieve- 
ment. 


HIS   TOTAL   ABSTINENCE    VIEWS  175 

"It  is  not  often  that  the  mere  man  of  letters  suc- 
ceeds in  secular  things  with  a  more  marked  success  ; 
and  when  we  ask  ourselves  the  cause  of  it,  we  find, 
apart  from  the  skill  with  which  he  did  his  work,  the 
influence  of  those  protecting  and  conserving  virtues 
which  are  the  security  and  glory  of  life. 

"When  Oliver  Goldsmith  died,  leaving  debts  of 
$10,000  unpaid,  Dr.  Johnson  gently  said,  'Never 
was  poet  so  trusted,'  and  there  has  come  a  sort  of 
popular  expectation  that  a  man  of  letters  shall  be  in 
some  way  a  Bohemian,  and  shall  especially  make  a 
wreck  of  health,  and  social  virtue,  and  family  stand- 
ing. .  .  .  Dr.  Holland  understood  how  to  hus- 
band his  means.  .  .  .  His  views  about  the  use 
of  intoxicating  drinks  were  well  known,  and  he  en- 
dured a  kind  of  reproach  and  social  martyrdom  from 
the  very  fact  of  his  total  abstinence.  And  yet  who 
shall  impugn  his  motives,  or  lessen  for  a  moment 
the  esteem  in  which  we  regard  his  social  and  hos- 
pitable qualities  ?  None  found  him  less  genial  be- 
cause he  did  not  look  upon  the  wine  when  it  was 
red,  when  it  giveth  its  color  in  the  cup.  And  how 
many  a  famous  name  in  letters  and  in  song  might 
have  been  spared  the  shame  and  obloquy  which 
tender  affection  has  to  hide,  if  the  example  of  Hol- 
land had  been  followed,  and  there  had  been  the  ex- 
ercise of  that  self-restraint  by  which  he  was  pre- 
served ! 


176  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

"And  what  might  I  not  say,  were  this  other  than 
a  public  occasion,  as  to  the  domestic  relations  of  our 
friend  ?  He  had  ambition  ;  he  loved  fame  ;  he  de- 
lighted in  the  honor  men  gave  him  ;  he  enjoyed  the 
pleasant  things  which  money  could  afford.  But  all 
these  were  chiefly  cared  for  that  he  might  crown  the 
days  and  make  bright  the  life  of  the  woman  he  had 
chosen  in  his  youth,  and  the  dear  hearts  God  had 
given  them  in  their  union  of  confidence  and  love. 
He  was  a  home-lover  and  a  home-keeper.  He  knew 
the  glory  and  strength  of  a  nation  was  in  the  fidelity 
of  husband  and  wife,  and  in  the  sweet  joys  of  the  fire- 
side. .  .  .  Bead  his  books,  peruse  his  essays, 
con  his  songs,  recall  his  conversations,  and  you  will 
recognize  how  the  man  was  every  whit  of  him  a  man 
of  virtue,  of  probity,  of  pureness,  and  self-restraint, 
and  there  you  will  find  the  secret  of  that  success 
which  not  only  gained,  but  kept,  which  was  not  only 
fame,  but  also  character  ;  which  was  built  not  upon 
the  shifting  sands  of  a  fickle  popularity,  but  upon 
the  strong,  firm  foundation  of  a  personal  and  a  do- 
mestic virtue. 

"Holland  was  a  good  man.  Nothing  illustrated 
this  more  than  the  spirit  with  which  he  dealt  with 
certain  forms  of  life  and  letters  as  seen  in  our  times, 
or  as  recorded  in  the  past.  ...  He  was  large- 
hearted  and  broad  in  his  views.  Some  people  have 
thought  him  latitudinarian,  almost  too  willing  to 


ART   SUBSERVIENT  TO   MORALITY        177 

allow  a  scope  and  liberty  which  might  become 
license  and  absence  of  all  law.  .  .  .  And  yet 
he  gave  no  indulgence  to  licentious  forms  of  art  in 
any  sort.  In  plain  nervous  speech  he  rebuked  ex- 
cesses and  abuses  of  every  kind.  The  artist,  in  Hol- 
land's estimation,  was  always  less  than  an  artist 
when  he  forgot  the  laws  of  morality  and  virtue.  In 
poetry,  in  painting,  in  prose,  in  sculpture,  in  poli- 
tics, in  social  life,  everywhere  he  sought  to  purify 
and  to  ennoble  the  aims  of  men.  .  .  .  And  the 
real  explanation  of  all  this  was  the  religious  nat- 
ure that  lay  at  the  base  of  his  character.  .  .  . 
He  was  a  Christian  man  in  the  deepest  sense  of 
that  term.  .  .  .  Christian  teaching  had  not  stif- 
fened with  him  into  a  hard  dogma  of  inflexible  be- 
lief, to  be  used  rather  as  a  test  of  other  people's 
opinions  and  life  than  the  inspiration  of  his  own. 
Neither  had  religious  truth  become  for  him  a  sort  of 
social  conscience,  a  kind  of  historical,  mental,  and 
spiritual  atmosphere  which  a  man  was  to  take  on, 
without  finding  in  it  much  personal  significance  ;  in- 
deed, on  the  whole,  thinking  it  advisable  not  greatly 
to  inquire,  lest  the  very  elements  and  combinations 
of  faith,  subjective,  if.  not  objective,  might  be  rudely 
disturbed.  But  religion  had  been  to  him  a  sore  dis- 
quietude. The  truth  of  Christ  and  his  Gospel  had 
been  painfully  questioned  by  him  at  one  time.  He 
passed  through  a  critical  and  doubtful  season,  and 
12 


178  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

this,  let  it  be  noted,  with  no  li^lit  heart.  He  did 
not  think  scepticism  and  questioning  and  uncer- 
tainty a  fine  thing,  or  a  trifling  matter.  But  it  was 
with  tears,  and  strong  cries,  and  deep  misgivings 
that  he  made  his  way  through  the  dark  valley  and  at 
last  came  into  the  light  that  was  beyond.  Historic 
and  parental  and  social  and  national  religion  thus 
became  personal  with  Dr.  Holland,  and  hence  it  was 
a  fire  that  consumed  him — a  fountain  within  that 
must  have  found  its  way  and  poured  forth  its  stream. 
It  was  this  that  caused  some  of  Dr.  Holland's  words 
to  seem  to  some  people  to  be  dangerous  and  novel. 
Men  who  go  through  these  crises  of  spiritual  history, 
as  he  went  through,  will  generally  emerge  with  a 
few  truths  clearly  apprehended,  vital,  all  inspiring  ; 
and  for  the  rest  they  wTill  have  a  respectful  honor 
but  no  very  passionate  regard.  Such  men  learn,  if 
I  may  so  call  it,  the  perspective  of  religion.  The 
system  of  doctrine  is  not  quite  a  wooden  puzzle,  the 
smallest  peg  of  which  is  the  key  and  binder  of  the 
whole.  The  panorama  of  divine  truth  is  not  repre- 
sented after  the  fashion  of  Chinese  art,  where  each 
object  is  painted  as  if  the  artist  was  close  to  it  and 
saw  nothing  else.  But  he  had  allowed  for  himself 
many  things  to  pass  into  a  secondary  place,  and  to 
be  wholly  subordinate  to  the  grand  and  central  facts 
of  God  his  Father  and  Jesus  Christ  his  Saviour. 
That  he  was   devout,   a  humble  believer  in  Jesus 


HIS   IDEAL,  THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE  179 

Christ,  accepting  the  Gospel  of  the  Crucified  One 
as  the  only  hope  of  the  world,  no  man  who  had 
preached  to  Dr.  Holland  for  five  years  and  had  seen 
his  face  as  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  were  pro- 
claimed, and  had  drawn  inspiration  from  that  raptur- 
ous countenance,  could  for  a  moment  doubt.    .    .    . 

"Had  he  worked  on  the  lower  plane  of  careless 
ethics,  he  would  not  have  been  the  writer,  the  poet, 
the  novelist  that  he  became.  The  Divine  Artist 
himself  has  created  a  world  infinitely  more  wonder- 
ful and  fair,  because  beyond  the  material  form,  the 
intellectual  fitness,  the  natural  beauty,  there  were 
ends  of  righteousness  and  goodness  that  have  lifted 
earth  to  heaven  and  made  man  to  become  a  son  of 
God.  Here  the  popular  heart  and  conscience  have 
more  insight  than  the  critic.  The  negative  morality 
of  the  artist  will  sink  him  to  the  narrow  sphere  of  a 
school.  The  ethics  of  art  will  raise  it  to  be  the  re- 
ligion of  the  race.  ...  If  he  was  an  ideal  man, 
he  had  found  that  ideal  in  the  Christian  life.  His 
thoughts,  his  workings,  were  all  inspired  by  his 
Christian  life  and  character — his  character  a  fresh 
testimony  to  the  truth  and  power  of  that  Gospel 
which  makes  wise  unto  salvation  —  that  religion 
which  has  the  promise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  and 
of  that  which  is  to  come." 

Another  very  tender  and  beautiful  tribute  was 
paid  his  memory,  on  the  Sunday  after  his  death,  in 


180  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

his  native  town  of  Belchertown,  Mass.,  in  a  discourse 
by  the  Eev.  P.  W.  Lyman,  in  which,  in  addition  to 
the  main  facts  connected  with  his  spiritual  life  and 
Christian  character,  he  summed  up  the  amount  of 
his  literary  work  in  books  thus:  "It  is  no  small 
accomplishment  to  put  eighteen  different  volumes 
of  good  literature  upon  the  world's  book-shelves  ; 
books,  too,  of  such  intrinsic  merit,  and  such  perti- 
nence to  the  wants  of  men,  that  every  one  of  them 
was  a  business  success,  and  that  upward  of  five-hun- 
dred thousand  volumes,  all  told,  have  already  been 
paid  for  by  the  public.  In  this  respect  certainly  his 
success  has  been  unequalled  among  Americans.  The 
writer  of  these  books  has  talked  about  things  con- 
cerning which  men  wished  to  hear.  He  has  talked 
in  a  way  to  meet  their  general  approval.     .     .     . 

"  The  editorial  chair  of  a  magazine  whose  readers 
approximate  a  million  is  a  responsible  place.  The 
opportunity  of  speaking  each  month,  as  the  recog- 
nized editor,  to  such  a  vast  and  noble  constituency, 
on  themes  occupying  their  thought  and  calling  for 
their  action,  gave  Dr.  Holland  a  grip  on  the  world's 
life  which  he  used  for  the  world's  advantage  ;  for,  as 
the  Tribune  well  says,  '  Whenever  a  question  had  a 
right  and  a  wrong  side,  he  was  always  found  on  the 
right.  If  he  gave  advice,  it  was  almost  always 
good.' 

"Dr.  Holland  was  not  only  a  literary   man,    he 


HIS   BOOKS    PARABLES  181 

was  also  a  social  force.  He  was  the  centre  of  a  cult- 
ured and  admiring  circle  of  whose  friendship  he  was 
justly  proud.  That  influential  circle  saw  and  felt 
the  beauty  and  value  of  his  Christian  life.  He  re- 
joiced in  his  social  opportunities,  and,  through  all  his 
use  of  them,  his  high  moral  and  Christian  purpose 
runs  :  he  courageously  and  consistently  used  both 
his  social  and  his  literary  vantage-ground  to  advance 
the  theory  and  practice  of  total  abstinence  from  all 
alcoholic  beverages.  Some  of  his  most  effective 
work  was  in  that  line.  He  was  an  unsparing  enemy 
of  the  social  glass.  To  the  wine-drinking  customs 
of  respectable  society  he  gave  no  quarter. 

"  In  regard  to  political  and  social  abuses,  he  has 
often  spoken  in  no  measured  terms.  In  the  same 
spirit  in  which  he  wrote  his  essay  on  the  '  Canoniza- 
tion of  the  Vicious,'  after  the  downfall  of  Tweed 
and  the  death  of  Fisk,  he  wrote  his  article  on  '  Easy 
Lessons  from  Hard  Lives.'  He  cautioned  his  read- 
ers against  the  feeling  that  Fisk  was  any  better  man 
because  he  was  killed.  He  protested  against  the 
destructive  doctrine  of  those  who  would  forbid  the 
novelist,  as  material  for  his  art,  the  great  questions 
which  concern  the  life  and  prosperity  of  individuals 
and  society. 

"  Dr.  Holland  felt  that  his  use  of  fiction  as  a  vehicle 
of  moral  and  religious  truth  was  sanctioned  fully  by 
the   Scripture   statement:    'And  without  a  parable 


182  JOSIAII    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

spake  he  not  to  them.'  Christ  and  his  commands 
were  an  ever-present  inspiration,  and  were  the  in- 
forming soul  of  his  literary  work.  He  said  in  one 
of  his  latest  'Topics/  'That  which  is  best  and 
most  poetic  in  human  life  has  uniformly  grown 
out  of  the  motives  born  of  faith  in  spiritual  things. 
The  greatest  heroisms  that  have  illustrated  the  his- 
tory of  the  human  race,  and  have  thus  become  an 
inspiration  in  our  literature,  have  been  born  of 
faith  in  things  unseen.  The  loves  that  have  made 
life  divine,  the  self-devotion  that  has  made  life 
beautiful,  the  transformations  of  character  which 
have  illuminated  the  beneficent  power  of  religion, 
the  high  moralities  that  have  given  safety  and 
purity  and  dignity  to  society,  the  aspirations  that 
have  gone  heavenward  from  a  world  of  conscious 
imperfection,  all  these  are  the  natural  outcome  of 
faith  in  the  spiritual  world.'" 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Dr.  Holland's  Will — Tribute  of  his  Associates  in  the  Maga- 
zine Editorship — The  Secular  Press  on  his  Power  and 
its  Sources — Tribute  of  the  Religious  Papers — His  Fami- 
ly, Grave,  and  Monument. 

It  certainly  is  reassuring  in  this  day  of  analyzing 
doubt,  and  shallow,  conceited  scepticism,  to  note 
how  the  poets — Whittier,  Tennyson,  Browning — 
have  clung  to,  and  iterated  and  reiterated  their  faith 
in  God  and  immortality ;  their  unalterable  belief 
that  the  soul  of  man  was  made  for  an  ever-progres- 
sive upward  destiny  ;  it  is  they 

"  Whose  voices  ring  out  a  world's  message 
Unflinching,  uplifting,  and  true." 

In  one  of  his  Easter  "Topics"  he  said :  "  A  living 
religion  never  could  have  been  founded  on  a  dead 
Christ ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  a  religion  that 
rests  on  a  living  Christ  can  never  be  superseded  or 
destroyed  ;"  and  this  belief  led  him  into  active 
Christian  labor  and  fellowship  wherever  he  lived, 
and  made  him  a  leading  spirit  in  any  church  with 
which  he  was  connected,  for  nothing  would  persuade 


184  JOSIAII    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

liim  that  a  man  could  be  as  good  a  Christian  out  of 
the  church  as  in  it.  He  believed  in  a  man's  show- 
ing his  colors,  and  standing  up  to  be  counted  "for 
Christ,"  and  he  did  all  that  he  could,  everywhere,  to 
bring  Christ  to  men,  and  men  to  Christ,  and  know- 
ing himself  to  be  no  pharisee  or  hypocrite,  he  cared 
not  if  men  of  another  type  called  him  "  prig  ; "  and 
the  crucial  test  of  such  a  faith  as  his  came  in  those 
four  long  years  in  which  he  looked  death  steadily  in 
the  face,  and  went  quietly  forward  with  his  daily 
work  as  calmly  as  if  the  impending  summons  were 
merely  the  request  of  a  messenger  for  him  to  step 
into  an  adjoining  room. 

He  had  written  "Arthur  Bonnicastle,"  while  yet 
in  the  possession  of  high  health ;  but  in  it  he  said : 
"The  generations  come  and  go  without  significance, 
if  there  be  not  the  confident  hope  and  expectation 
of  something  to  follow,  so  grand,  so  sweet,  and  beau- 
tiful, that  we  can  look  upon  it  without  pain  or  mis- 
giving ;  faith  draws  the  poison  from  every  grief, 
takes  the  sting  from  every  loss,  and  quenches  the 
fire  of  every  pain  ;  and  only  faith  can  do  it." 

The  calmness  with  which  he  worked  on,  taking  as 
keen  and  deep  an  interest  in  all  the  living  issues  of 
the  day  as  if  he  were  to  have  an  immortality  on 
earth,  and  see  them  all  carried  to  their  ultimate  con- 
clusions, was  not  the  result  of  indifference,  but  in- 
telligent conviction,  and  it  was  but  a  short  time  be- 


"tiirexody"  185 

fore  the  silver  cord  gave  way  that  he  wrote  "Thren- 
ody," of  which  this  extract  shows  the  ground  of  the 
quietness  that  possessed  his  soul : 

"  O  life  !  why  art  thou  so  bright  a  boon  ? 
O  breath  !  why  art  thou  so  sweet  ? 
O  friends  !  how  can  you  forget  so  soon 
The  loved  ones  that  lie  at  your  feet  ? 

"  The  ways  of  men  are  busy  and  bright, 
The  eye  of  woman  is  kind  ; 
It  is  sweet  for  the  eyes  to  behold  the  light, 
But  the  dying  and  dead  are  blind. 

"And  the  world  goes  round  and  round, 
And  the  sun  falls  into  the  sea, 
And  whether  I'm  on,  or  under  the  ground, 
The  world  cares  little  for  me. 

"  But  if  life  awake,  and  will  never  cease, 
On  the  future  distant  shore. 
And  the  rose  of  love,  and  the  lily  of  peace, 
Shall  bloom  there  for  evermore  — 

"  Let  the  world  go  round  and  round 
And  the  sun  sink  into  the  sea, 
For  whether  I'm  on,  or  under  the  ground, 
Oh!  what  will  it  matter  to  me." 

He  added  to  the  testimony  of  an  actively  con- 
sistent life  in  the  service  of  Christ  this  deliberate 
declaration  in  his  will :  "I  am  thankful  for  hav- 


1S6  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

ing  enjoyed  the  privileges  of  labor  and  influence, 
thankful  for  wife  and  children,  thankful  for  all  my 
successes.  I  have  intentionally  and  consciously 
wronged  no  man,  and  if  I  know  my  heart  I  have 
forgiven  all  my  enemies.  For  the  great  hereafter  I 
trust  in  the  Infinite  Love,  as  it  is  expressed  to  me 
in  the  life  and  death  of  my  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ." 

Well  might  he  be  grateful  for  his  opportunity  of 
influence.  The  newspaper  and  the  magazine  hold 
to-day  the  dominant  power  in  the  moulding  of 
public  opinion  which  in  the  last  century  pertained 
to  the  clergy  and  the  pulpit.  The  first  issue  of 
Scribners  was  40,000  copies,  and  long  before  its 
first  editor  died  it  had  attained  a  circulation  of 
150,000  a  month,  and  in  the  eleven  years  in  which 
Dr.  Holland  wrote  his  "Topics"  not  less  than 
10,000,000  copies  were  printed.  Well  might  he 
rejoice  in  the  power  to  plant  pure  and  just  and 
pertinent  thoughts  on  the  subjects  that  were  en- 
grossing them  in  the  minds  of  the  yeople,  those 
people  who  there  often  found  "  a  way  out "  in  per- 
plexity, or  an  uplifting  inspiration  to  keep  on  some 
chosen  and  worthy  course  ;  and  among  all  these 
millions  of  words  not  one  that  could  contaminate 
or  poison  or  mislead  into  devious  paths.  Surely 
when  God  denied  his  mother's  darling  wish,  he 
was  leading  him  by  a  way  which  he  knew  not.     He 


"the  century"  187 

left  two  "Topics"  ready  for  the  next  issue — that 
next  issue  that  always  haunts  the  editor. 

A  copy  of  the  first  issue  of  the  magazine  under 
its  new  name  of  The  Century,  and  in  its  quaint 
present  style  of  cover,  was  put  into  his  hands  a  few 
days  before  his  death.  There  was  no  presentiment 
that  his  work  was  done  in  the  "  Topics  " — "  Political 
Education  "  and  "  Literary  Eccentricity  "—that  oc- 
cupy his  department  in  the  last  number  of  Scrib- 
ner's.  There  was  a  singular  completeness  in  the 
last  and  greatest  of  the  "  successes,"  for  which  he 
was  grateful.  It  was  exactly  eleven  years  since  the 
first  lavender-colored  issue  had  made  its  appearance, 
bearing  his  name  on  the  cover  and  title-page,  and 
the  twenty-two  bound  volumes  stand  in  hundreds  of 
libraries,  the  successive  "  Topics"  containing  a  com- 
plete reflection  of  the  "  Times,"  so  that  in  a  certain 
sense  he  has  built  an  enduring  monument  with  his 
own  hand,  for  in  future  times  the  historian  and  the 
antiquarian  will  come  to  these  volumes  to  learn 
what  it  was  that  interested  us  of  this  nineteenth 
century,  and  the  direct,  simple,  pure,  rhythmical 
English  of  the  unsensational  style  in  which  they 
are  treated  will  charm,  and  hold  the  attention  of 
the  reader,  and  give  to  them  a  permanent  literary 
value. 

In  one  of  Robertson's  sermons  he  says:  "There 
is  one  honest   hour   in   which   a   man's   character 


1SS  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

and  career  is  justly  judged  by  both  friends  and 
enemies.  It  is  the  time  which  intervenes  between 
his  death  and  burial,"  and  when  the  man  who 
has  fallen  belongs  to  the  great  guild  of  editors 
the  judgment  finds  itself  recorded  in  the  next  issue 
of  newspaper  or  magazine.  The  Century  for  De- 
cember, 1881  (the  November  number  was  printed 
before  he  died),  contained  a  careful  estimate  of 
the  man  as  he  appeared  to  those  who  had  come  into 
daily  contact  with  him  for  longer  or  shorter  periods 
during  the  past  eleven  years,  and  it  is  quite  certain 
that  the  hands  who  recorded  the  judgments  were  of 
men  who  had  "  summered  and  wintered  with  him." 
Mr.  Eggleston  says  :  "  Doctor  Holland  was  a  man 
of  dignified  and  impressive  presence  ;  he  had  some- 
thing of  that  talent  for  affairs  that  is  indispensable 
to  the  journalist,  but  he  was  also  a  man  of  rare 
simplicity  and  transparency.  He  often  showed  his 
inmost  thoughts  to  strangers  and  cast  the  pearls  of 
his  confidence  before  swine  who  turned  upon  him. 
He  loved  approbation  and  he  craved  affection.  De 
Quincey  never  got  over  the  physical  pangs  occa- 
sioned by  prolonged  hunger,  and  the  man  who  has 
been  thoroughly  brow-beaten  and  down-trodden  by 
persistent  hard  fortune  in  his  growth  is  likely  to 
have  a  life-long  hunger  for  the  love  and  apprecia- 
tion of  his  fellows.  This  appetite  for  approval, 
joined   to   a   nature  incorrigibly  frank   and   open, 


"lessons  ix  life"  189 

made  Dr.  Holland  seem  to  some  people  to  possess 
more  self-esteem  than  be  really  bad.  In  truth  a 
great  deal  of  wbat  appeared  to  be  self-assertion  was 
tbe  offspring  of  a  latent  self-discouragement.  No 
critic  could  make  a  more  acute  estimate  of  Dr.  Hol- 
land's etbical  books  tban  be  does  in  tbese  modest 
words  from  tbe  preface  to  '  Lessons  in  Life  ' : 

" '  In  tins  book,  as  in  its  predecessors,  tbe  autbor 
bas  aimed  at  being  neitber  brilliant  nor  profound. 
He  bas  endeavored  simply  to  treat  in  a  familiar 
and  attractive  way  a  few  of  tbe  more  prominent 
questions  wbicb  concern  tbe  life  of  every  thought- 
ful  man  and  woman.  Indeed,  be  can  hardly  pre- 
tend to  bave  done  more  tban  organize  and  put  into 
form  tbe  average  thinking  of  tbose  who  read  bis 
books,  to  place  before  tbe  people  tbe  sum  of  their 
own  choicer  judgments,  and  he  neitber  expects  nor 
wishes  for  these  essays  higher  praise  than  that 
wbicb  accords  to  them  the  quality  of  common-sense.' 

"Having  been  poor  himself  he  gave  freely  to 
others  who  were  straitened.  His  generosity,  and 
what  I  bave  denominated  bis  simplicity,  made  him  a 
prey  to  the  ingenious  romancers  who  live  upon  the 
sympathies  of  the  good.  He  said  once  that  he 
could  better  afford  to  give  a  worthless  fellow  twenty- 
five  dollars  than  to  subject  himself  to  the  demoral- 
izing influences  of  suspicion.  It  gave  him  a  severe 
pang  to  distrust  anybody. 


190  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

"After  all,  the  great  heart  was  a  large  part  of  the 
man.  He  cherished  high  and  generous  ideals  him- 
self and  nourished  them  in  others.  His  sympathies 
and  sensibilities  nothing  could  blunt.  He  had  words 
of  kindness  for  the  humblest,  and  he  loved  the  com- 
mon people  with  a  sympathy  which  reacted  upon  his 
own  life  and  character.  He  would  sometimes,  at 
Bonnie-Castle,  hide  his  face  in  his  hands,  with  a  sort 
of  terror,  when  he  saw  strangers  approaching,  but 
he  would  never  refuse  to  see  them  and  show  them 
about  the  place.  His  superabundant  sympathy 
drew  to  him,  from  all  classes  of  society,  a  love  not 
often  given  to  any  man.  People  visited  his  summer 
home  as  though  making  a  pilgrimage  to  a  shrine, 
and  carried  away  relics  of  every  kind,  begging 
sometimes  even  for  a  handful  of  pebbles  out  of  the 
roadway.  This  grateful  love  of  thousands  grew 
out  of  the  genuine  service  that  he  had  been  able  to 
render  to  the  men  and  women  of  his  generation, 
and  it  was  a  noble  and  enviable  guerdon,  bravely 
and  worthily  won." 

Another  hand  in  The  Century  establishment 
wrote  :  "  He  had  accomplished  nearly  every  desire 
of  his  heart.  His  life  had  grown  broader  and  richer 
to  its  close.  Though  keenly  sensitive  to  sharp  criti- 
cism, and  often  suffering  from  it,  still  he  was  buoyed 
up  through  all  his  busy  career  by  the  grateful  affec- 
tions of  untold  thousands,  and  the  love  of  all  who 


RELATION'S   WITH    ASSOCIATES  191 

were  near  him.  He  lived  long  enough  not  only  to 
be  able  to  say  honestly  that  he  had  forgiven  all  his 
enemies,  but  long  enough  to  gain  the  reverence  and 
attachment  of  those  who  had  planted  the  deepest 
thorns  in  his  side.     .     .     . 

"  It  is  hard  to  do  here,  in  these  columns,  for  our 
lamented  chief,  what  he  has  so  often  done  for  his 
own  comrades  stricken  down  at  his  side.  .  .  . 
Enough  for  us  to  say  that  the  spirit  of  sympathy 
and  helpfulness,  that  courtesy  and  gentle  considera- 
tion which  were  so  deeply  characteristic  of  his  pub- 
lished writings  and  his  dealings  with  all,  friends  or 
utter  strangers,  with  whom  he  came  in  contact ; 
enough  to  say  that  these  qualities  of  his  heart  had 
endeared  him  to  his  editorial  and  business  asso- 
ciates in  a  peculiar  manner.  Every  one  of  them  re- 
members not  only  the  uniform  and  unfailing  gentle- 
ness of  his  manner,  but  also  many  acts  of  especial 
and  extraordinary  tenderness  and  forbearance. 
Even  in  cases  where  the  springs  of  action  must 
have  been  hard  for  him  to  understand,  he  still 
trusted  ;  never  once  did  he  knowingly  give  pain  to 
those  beneath  him  in  authority.  He  trusted  his  as- 
sociates, and  all  employed  in  the  work  of  the  maga- 
zine, with  a  completeness  that  not  only  helped  each 
to  develop  to  the  utmost  his  individual  capacity, 
but  which  attached  all  of  them  to  him  in  the  bonds 
of   personal    affection   and   devoted   loyalty.      His 


192  JOSIAH   GILBEKT  HOLLAND 

quick  sympathy,  his  warm  encouragement,  the  in- 
spiration of  bis  generous  confidence,  his  winning 
and  fatherly  presence,  all  these  we  shall  miss  be- 
yond words." 

Of  course  every  leading  newspaper  bad  an  article, 
more  or  less  carefully  written,  containing  an  esti- 
mate, more  or  less  just,  of  the  elements  and  value 
of  his  literary  work. 

"Warrington,"  the  brilliant  Boston  correspond- 
ent of  the  Springfield  Republican,  whose  literary 
judgments  were  often  "  bitten  "  in  with  aqua-fortis, 
had  said  of  him  :  "  Holland  does  know  how  to  set  an 
intellectual  table  that  will  suit  the  mass  of  man- 
kind," and  it  is  interesting  to  see  how  the  consen- 
sus of  opinion,  in  the  full  chorus  of  newspaperdom, 
echoed  this  judgment. 

Said  the  New  York  Evening  Mail :  "  The  influence 
of  Dr.  Holland  has  been  vast,  and  his  worth  as  a  man 
has  been  almost  beyond  praise.  The  death  of  few 
American  writers  would  cause  sorrow  in  more 
hearts." 

The  St.  Louis  Spectator  said  :  "  Especially  do  the 
young  people  of  America  mourn  his  loss,  for  to 
them  he  was  a  good  adviser  and  a  dear  friend." 

The  St.  Louis  Globe- Democrat  said  :  "In  all  the 
sensational  whirl  of  his  time,  which  upset  so  many 
heads  and  touched  so  many  pens  with  loose  and 
doubtful  messages,  he  stood  his  ground  without  a 


PRESS   TRIBUTES  193 

hint  of  flattery,  and  was  at  the  last  as  at  the  first, 
an  artist  who  scorned  to  lower  his  ideal.  .  .  . 
The  gossips  will  find  no  scandals  clinging  to  his 
memory,  and  no  account  of  regretful  foibles  to  be 
condoned  as  the  eccentricities  of  genius." 

The  Chicago  Standard  said  :  "  His  boohs  have 
given  pleasure  and  profit  to  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  readers,"  while  the  Colorado  Gazette  dwelt 
on  his  conscientiousness. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  war,  with  all  of 
Dr.  Holland's  unsparing  denunciations  of  secession 
and  disloyalty,  had  intervened  between  the  time 
when  he  brought  order  out  of  chaos  in  the  Yicks- 
burg  schools,  and  the  time  in  which  his  books  had 
made  their  way  to  that  notable  strategic  point,  yet 
the  Sentinel  said :  "  Dr.  Holland  is  remembered 
here  as  the  principal  of  our  Main  Street  public 
school,  and  as  the  scholarly  preceptor  of  many  of 
our  boys  who  are  now  the  leading  citizens  of  this 
place.  To  his  administration  Yicksburg  is  largely 
indebted  for  the  successful  and  honored  history  of 
this  justly  celebrated  school." 

The  New  York  Evening  Post,  in  a  carefully  pre- 
pared article,  said  :  "  No  literary  man  in  America 
perhaps,  was  so  accurately  fitted  for  his  precise 
work.  He  had  the  immense  advantage  of  keeping 
on  a  plane  of  thought  just  above  that  of  a  vast 
multitude  of  readers,  each  one  of  whom  he  could 
13 


194  JOSIAII    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

touch  with  his  hand  and  raise  a  little  upward. 
.  .  .  He  thought  the -thoughts  of  the  average 
American  citizen,  he  stated  those  thoughts  with 
admirable  good  sense,  and  he  fortified  them  with 
a  moral  standard  uniformly  high.  Hence  his  popu- 
larity really  travelled  westward  on  the  wave  of 
our  national  civilization  ;  to  the  more  staid  and 
critical  East,  it  was  a  constant  amazement  to  see 
the  extent  of  his  fame ;  but  once  beyond  the  Al- 
leghanies  his  books  sold  by  scores,  and  perhaps 
hundreds,  where  even  Longfellow  and  Whittier  sold 
by  twos  and  threes.  Certainly,  if  ever  seer  or 
prophet  knew  to  whom  he  had  been  sent,  it  was 
Dr.  Holland,  and  joyfully  accepting  it  as  from  God, 
he  wrought  for  them." 

Said  the  New  York  Tribune  :  "He  knew  for  whom 
he  was  writing,  and  he  was  more  anxious  to  persuade 
than  to  startle  them.  .  .  .  For  young  writers 
especially  he  had  always  a  word  of  kindness  and 
encouragement,  and  he  never  forgot,  didactic  as  he 
wras,  that  charity  is  better  than  censoriousness,  and 
that  criticism  may  be  at  once  accurate  and  unjust. 
Nothing  which  he  wrote  could  have  made  his  read- 
ers worse — a  great  deal  which  he  wrote  ought  to 
have  made  them  better." 

The  NewT  York  World  sums  up  an  entertaining 
account  of  his  home  and  surroundings  thus  :  "  "While 
he  holds  his  own  opinions  tenaciously,  he  is  alto- 


"the  most  popular  of  authors"    195 

gether  tolerant  of  the  opinions  of  others,  and  reck- 
ons among  some  of  his  best  friends  men  and  women 
of  the  art  tribe  who  are  radicals  and  rationalists  in 
matters  of  belief." 

The  New  York  Sun  began  by  calling  him  "  TJie 
Most  Popular  of  Author**"  not  only  of  this  country 
but  of  England,  and  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
"  he  was  one  of  the  few  authors  of  the  United  States 
who  have  made  a  fortune  out  of  literature.  It  is 
true  that  he  was  besides  successful  as  a  newspaper 
and  magazine  proprietor,  but  his  literary  fame  was 
the  foundation  of  it  all.  As  a  rule,  however  great 
may  be  the  reward  a  writer  gets  in  reputation,  in 
hard  cash  his  recompense  is  comparatively  small. 
Dr.  Holland,  however,  was  one  of  those  fortunate 
writers  to  whom  the  reward  comes  at  once,  and  in 
actual  money.  .  .  .  His  publishers  printed  for 
him,  during  twenty  years,  fifteen  volumes.  .  .  . 
The  combined  circulation  of  these  works,  which  were 
not  sold  at  the  present  cheap  prices  for  fiction,  but 
at  the  old  and  comparatively  high  prices  obtained 
for  bound  and  copyrighted  books,  was  so  great  that 
he  received  from  them  a  total  royalty  remarkable  in 
the  history  of  literature.     .     .     . 

"However  much  the  critics  might  find  fault  with 
him,  the  average  run  of  people,  of  New  England  es- 
pecially, were  not  afraid  to  call  him  their  favorite 
novelist,    their   favorite  essavist,  and  their  favorite 


190  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

poet.  He  drew  for  tliem  the  characters  they  were 
accustomed  to  in  their  daily  lives.  He  placed  his 
heroes  and  heroines  amid  circumstances  wThich  were 
easily  comprehended  by  the  class  to  whom  he  ap- 
pealed.    .     .     ." 

Evidently  The  San,  while  correctly  analyzing  the 
secret  of  his  power,  did  not  appreciate  how  thor- 
oughly Dr.  Holland  comprehended  the  new  religious 
spirit  of  the  time,  which  certainly  thinks  more  of 
character,  and  less  of  creed,  than  any  one  to  whom 
the  name  Puritan  can  be  justly  applied. 

That  his  writings  touched  chords  that  could 
respond,  in  regions  far  beyond  the  New  England 
that  he  so  faithfully  depicted,  the  following,  from 
the  London  Academy,  shows:  "To  read  his  novels 
is  a  perpetual  inspiration,  and  to  the  young,  with 
their  imaginative  vigor,  nothing  could  be  more 
healthful.  .  .  .  America  has  produced  few  work- 
ing editors  whose  influence  has  been  so  para- 
mount and  far-reaching  ;  and  few  have  displayed  so 
much  talent — as  a  poet,  lecturer,  essayist,  and  as  a 
pure  and  high-minded  novelist,  who  could  sketch 
with  remarkable  power  all  that  is  best  and  worst 
in  American  society." 

In  the  Canadian  Monthly  we  find  :  "  Enough  that  he 
belonged  to  the  order  of  true  poets,  or  seers,  whose 
eyes  have  been  touched  to  see  the  glorious  realities 
that  lie  beyond  the  world  of  sight  and  sense.     He 


HIS   LIFE   ONE   OF   PURPOSE  197 

has  not  unfitly  been  styled  the  '  Apostle  of  the  Com- 
monplace, '  because  it  was   his  forte  to  touch  with 
the  light  of  poetry  the  common  ways  of  life,  to  show 
the  beauty  that  to  the  seeing  eye  may  lie  about  the^ 
humblest  paths." 

But,  after  all,  it  was  the  noble  life  that  so  nearly 
came  up  to  his  proclaimed  ideals  that  commanded 
the  supreme  homage.  Said  the  Atlanta  (Ga.)  Chris- 
tian Index:  "Above  all,  his  honest  directness  of  pur- 
pose, his  hatred  of  sham,  his  vigorous  championing 
of  truth  and  wholesomeness  in  the  work  of  author- 
ship, and  the  high  standard  of  morality  in  literature 
and  society,  which  was  set  up  by  him  in  theory,  and 
so  conspicuously  illustrated  iu  his  own  manly  prac- 
tice, made  him  not  only  one  of  the  most  successful, 
but  one  of  the  most  useful  and  beneficial  writers 
and  authors  of  our  age." 

In  the  same  strain  of  valuing  character,  the  Hart- 
ford Gourant  speaks  :  "An  earnest,  reverent  purpose 
was  aimed  at  and  fulfilled  in  his  entire  literary  ca- 
reer. All  honor  to  him  for  his  lifelong  honor  of  that 
which  is  best  and  dearest  in  human  life — human  love." 

The  Philadelphia  Inquirer  said:  "To  his  sterling 
worth  and  attractive  character  are  due  the  unfail- 
ing loyalty  he  iospired  in  those  who  labored  with 
him  and  for  him,  and  a  circle  of  admirers  reaching 
round  the  world  will  miss  him  sorely  and  mourn 
him  lone:." 


198  JOSIAH   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

And  the  Critic — which  had  the  best  of  reasons  for 
knowing — said:  "Perhaps  no  man  in  this  country 
has  helped  so  many  persons  on  their  path  of  life  by 
written  or  spoken  words  of  kindness  or  wise  ad- 
vice." 

The  Rural  Home,  of  Kochester,  called  attention  to 
the  purity  of  his  writings  :  "  As  a  pure  and  ennobling 
influence  he  entered  American  homes."  But  it  was 
in  the  columns  of  the  distinctively  "religious  jour- 
nals "  that  Dr.  Holland  found  the  fullest  apprecia- 
tion. They  felt  that  a  rare  example  of  all  that  they 
strive  to  exalt  had  ceased  to  be  among  living  men. 
Said  the  New  York  Observer:  "Addressing  himself 
to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  he  won  his  way  to  a 
popularity  not  exceeded  by  any  American  writer  of 
poetry  or  prose.  His  labors  brought  him  wealth 
and  the  comforts  and  luxuries  that  wealth  brings, 
and  which  no  man  deserves  more  truly  than  he  who 
by  the  sweat  of  his  brain  adds  to  the  happiness  and 
moral  improvement  of  millions." 

A  writer  in  the  Examiner  and  Chronicle  who 
knew  him  well  says:  "In  quietness  he  worked  and 
ate  his  own  bread.  He  studied  to  be  quiet,  and  I 
can  never  think  of  him  without  a  feeling  of  restful 
enjoyment.  Dr.  Holland  was  resolute,  patient, 
judicious,  and  industrious.  He  wras  exceptionally 
endowed  with  tact  and  pluck  and  pertinacity.  He 
was  painstaking,  and  willing  to  bide  his  time.     No 


JUDGMENTS   OF   CONTEMPORARIES       199 

rebuff  could  dishearten  him.  It  was  perfectly  natu- 
ral for  him  to  go  at  it,  and  stick  at  it,  to  try  again 
and  keep  trying.  His  first  manuscripts  were  re- 
fused by  some  publishers,  who  would  not  look  the 
way  of  him  or  them.  There  was  one  exception, 
Charles  Scribner.  He  was  an  exceptional  man,  and 
he  found  in  Holland's  writings  just  what  their 
readers  by  tens  of  thousands  have  found  in  them, 
wholesome  counsel,  salutary  restraint,  words  of  good 
cheer  for  the  faint-hearted.  Publisher  and  author 
had  traits  of  character  in  common.  Both  were 
quiet,  manly  men,  direct  and  upright  in  method, 
minding  each  his  own  business,  and  minding  it 
shrewdly  and  assiduously.  His  fondness  for  his 
family  was  very  beautiful.  He  said  to  me  the  other 
day  at  Bonnie -Castle,  'My  children  have  had  a  long 
and  sunny  childhood,  and  that  was  just  as  I  wished 
it.' 

"He  was  fair  in  his  estimates  of  his  contem- 
poraries. He  spoke  freely  of  their  excellences,  and 
seldom  alluded  to  their  defects.  His  indignation 
wras  stirred  by  meanness  and  chicanery,  and  then 
he  was  severe,  but  he  had  nothing  but  pitiful  and 
hopeful  words  for  the  well-meaning  who  were  over- 
taken in  a  fault  or  a  blunder." 

The  editor  of  the  New  York  Evangelist,  himself 
a  New  England  man,  was  a  settled  pastor  in  West 
Springfield  at  the  time  when  the  Republican  began 


200  JOSIAH    GILBERT   HOLLAND 

to  make  itself  felt  as  a  moral  censor  and  power. 
He  writes  :  "  The  chief  criticism  urged  against  Dr. 
Holland's  productions  was  that  they  preached. 
Yes  ;  but  they  preach  the  gospel  of  truth  and  a 
divine  charity  ;  they  all  expose  and  condemn  what 
is  vicious,  however  alluring  its  form  may  be.  They 
all  set  forth  a  high  ideal  of  life  and  character.  His 
intellectual  house  had  windows  on  all  sides ;  but 
while  enjoying  the  broad  and  diverse  views  in  all 
directions,  personally,  he  kept  close  to  the  hearth- 
stone of  the  old  faith,  on  which  the  fire  ever  burned. 
Doubtless  much  of  his  popular  success  was  owing 
to  the  remarkable  skill  and  novelty  with  which  he 
presented  old  and  obvious  truths  ;  but  they  were 
always  truths  of  the  greatest  importance.  The 
multiplication-table  is  commonplace  and  the  golden 
rule  a  platitude,  but  commerce  could  not  be  car- 
ried on  without  the  former,  and  the  latter  carries 
with  it  the  promise  of  the  millennium.  In  private 
life  he  exemplified  what  he  commended  in  his  writ- 
ings. He  was  sincere,  cordial,  generous,  sympa- 
thetic, considerate  of  others,  tender  as  a  woman, 
gentle  as  a  child,  brave  as  any  knight  in  his  loyalty 
to  the  right." 

When  accused  of  teaching  heresy  in  his  very 
early  days  in  Springfield  he  read  a  chapter  from  the 
New  Testament,  saying,  "  That  is  my  creed."  In 
that  early  day  he  had  a  prescient  perception  of  the 


A  TEACHER   OF   MULTITUDES  201 

new  valuation  that  was  coming  to  be  put  upon  elab- 
orate and  metaphysical  "  systems  of  belief,"  spun 
from  the  brains  of  cloistered  theologians,  and  in 
sharp  contrast  with  the  spirit  of  the  Master,  which 
is  ever  repeating,  "  This  do." 

The  Christian  Union,  a  live  organ  of  a  live  relig- 
ion, said  :  "  Dr.  Holland's  literary  appeal  lay  not  to 
a  range  of  facts  and  experiences  which  are  the  out- 
growth of  an  advanced  stage  of  mental  or  social  cult- 
ure ;  he  touched  rather  those  central  facts  and  expe- 
riences in  which  all  classes  find  a  common  life.  His 
work  was  moral  rather  than  intellectual,  and  hence, 
although  less  brilliant,  it  was  far  more  useful  and 
permanent  in  its  influence  than  much  that  has  been 
done  in  the  same  lines  more  pretentiously.  Intel- 
lectual ideals  are  for  the  few,  moral  ideals  for  the 
many  ;  and  when  Dr.  .Holland  made  himself  the 
interpreter  of  the  latter  he  became  as  the  voice  of 
their  own  souls  to  a  host  whom  nature  or  circum- 
stances had  made  mute.  To  be  the  apostle  of  the 
commonplace — if  that  were  a  true  description  of 
Dr.  Holland — is  to  be  the  teacher  of  a  great  truth 
to  great  multitudes.  Most  lives  are  set  in  common- 
place surroundings,  are  filled  with  commonplace 
incidents,  are  begun  and  ended  in  commonplace 
ways  ;  birth,  marriage,  work,  suffering,  and  death 
are  the  universal  commonplaces  through  which 
men  pass  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.     The  poet 


202  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

whose  insight  discovers  some  new  and  beautiful 
truth  is  a  minister  to  the  higher  needs  of  men,  and 
his  service  is  generously  recognized  ;  but  is  he  not 
equally  the  benefactor  of  his  race  who,  walking 
along  the  common  paths  of  life,  turns  the  weeds 
into  flowers  and  makes  the  dusty  way  bright  with 
promise  and  radiant  with  hope  ?  To  idealize  the 
commonplace  is  often  more  difficult  than  to  disclose 
the  poetic  side  of  those  inspiring  truths  which  are 
a  pillar  of  fire  to  the  eyes  of  a  few  cultured  souls, 
but  for  the  multitude  a  vague  and  formless  cloud. 
To  interpret  common  events  for  common  men  is  to 
enrich  life  where  it  is  poorest,  to  brighten  it  where 
it  is  darkest,  to  make  it  inspiring  where  it  is  most  de- 
pressing, to  turn  it  into  poetry  where  it  is  most  prosaic. 
"  The  upper  ranges  of  truth  and  fact  are  always 
poetic  to  those  who  have  spiritual  insight  ;  they  are 
the  mountain-peaks  whose  foreheads  are  always 
luminous,  but  blessed  truly  is  he  who  brings  the 
glow  of  aspiration  and  poetry  into  the  valleys  and 
makes  apparent  their  common  heritage  of  sunshine 
with  the  hills.  Dr.  Holland  took  the  common  ex- 
periences of  life  and  made  them  deeply  significant 
and  beautiful  to  a  multitude  who  would  otherwise 
be  only  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water ;  he 
preached  the  gospel  of  a  divine  purpose  in  the 
wearisome  details  and  the  vexatious  trials  which  are 
the  staple  of  most  men's  lives.     The  dumb  yearning 


HIS  SECRET  OF  SUCCESS       203 

of  the  boy  on  the  farm  for  knowledge,  the  hard 
struggle  of  the  young  man  for  place  and  influence, 
the  courage  of  vigor  and  maturity,  the  calmness 
and  resignation  of  age,  the  lasting  romance  of  love 
when  marriage  has  made  it  the  yoke-fellow  with 
duty,  the  undying  sweetness  of  family  relationships, 
the  blessed  fruits  of  sorrow  patiently  borne,  all 
these,  which  are  the  Bitter-sweet  of  human  life,  Dr. 
Holland  has  interpreted  with  a  wrarm  heart,  a  clear 
intelligence,  and  an  undoubted  poetic  insight. 

"  And  whatever  excellence  was  in  his  literary  work 
was  also  in  his  character  and  life.  His  career  was 
harmonious,  and  in  its  way  eminently  successful, 
because  the  outer  life  expressed  so  fully  and  clearly 
the  inner ;  because  action  followed  so  close  upon 
thought  ;  because  kind  words,  helpful  deeds,  and 
single-hearted  rectitude  were  the  natural  outcome  of 
a  loyal  heart,  an  aspiring  soul,  and  a  true  and  gen- 
uine manhood." 

This  consensus  of  opinion  has  been  quoted  at  such 
great  length  because  it  was  the  estimate  of  contem- 
porary men  who  had  watched  Dr.  Holland's  develop- 
ment and  career  and  influence  from  its  beginning 
to  its  sudden  close,  and  who  naturally  asked,  but  in 
the  true  spirit  of  philosophical  inquiry,  as  to  what 
was  the  secret  of  the  marvellous  adaptation  of  his 
work  to  the  needs  of  such  remarkable  numbers  of 
men,   as    unquestionably  attested  by  the  unprece- 


204  JOSIAH   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

dented  total  sale  of  his  books  and  the  great  popular- 
ity of  his  magazine. 

Was  it  not  because  he  showed  men  and  -women 
their  own  best  thoughts  and  judgments  in  words 
that  they  understood  ?  When  he  told  a  youth  of  un- 
scholarly  make,  but  who  could  appreciate  the  dig- 
nity and  seeming  ease  of  a  professional  career,  that 
it  was  a  mistaken  waste  of  power  for  such  as  he  to 
go  to  college,  in  his  own  plain  but  convincing  way, 
generally  the  youth  saw  the  point.  He  was  an  emi- 
nently sane  writer.  The  New  England  farmer  called 
him  a  "sensible"  writer,  while  if  a  page  of  Lowell 
or  Emerson  treating  of  the  same  questions  had  been 
read  to  him  he  would  have  said,  "Perhaps  he  knows 
what  he  is  talking  about,  I'm  sure  I  don't,"  Though 
the  works  of  these  men  teem  with  vigorous  instruc- 
tion, many  of  their  expressions  are  like  syncopations 
that  require  much  classical  learning,  much  knowl- 
edge of  past  history,  and  much  philosophy  in  the 
mind  of  the  reader,  to  be  fully  interpreted  to  him. 
Dr.  Holland  stated  his  thought,  taking  little  of  all 
these  for  granted,  with  a  careful  elaboration,  under 
an  unspoken,  perhaps  an  unowned  coercion,  from 
the  knowledge  that  his  audience  was  busy  men  and 
women  with  little  time  for  deep  study  and  less  for 
abstract  speculation.  On  being  questioned  once  as 
to  the  sources  of  literary  power,  he  said:  "I  look 
into  my  heart  and  write,"  and  many  men  found  that 


TRUTH   BETTER  THAN   CONSISTENCY     205 

he  had  expressed  with  masterly  good  sense  just  what 
the}'  had  been  thinking  and  feeling.  Thus  he  be- 
came their  Voice.  And  then  he  had  that  high  type 
of  moral  courage  that  dared  to  change  an  opinion 
when  he  saw  good  reasons  for  so  doing  ;  he  fearlessly 
followed  Holmes's  advice,  "  Don't  be  consistent,  but 
be  simply  true."  He  was  willing  to  grow  up  into 
the  full  tree  called  for  by  the  influences  of  his  time, 
and  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  when  planted  in  a 
broad  space,  drawing  nourishment  from  many  di- 
verse sources,  instead  of  remaining  dwarfed  in  the 
pot  in  which  the  seedling  had  been  temporarily 
planted,  merely  because  it  had  been  planted  in  it. 

He  was  not  always  looking  backward  over  his 
shoulder,  but  bravely,  and  at  the  risk  of  being  mis- 
understood, followed  Emerson's  precept:  "Speak 
what  you  think  now  in  hard  words,  and  to-morrow 
speak  what  to-morrow  thinks  in  hard  words  again, 
though  it  contradict  everything  you  said  to-day." 

Being  convinced  in  his  inmost  soul  that  God 
wanted  just  such  a  man  as  he  was  in  the  time  and 
place  in  which  he  had  put  him,  he  dared  to  be  utterly 
true  to  his  inmost  self,  and  therefore  this  life  lived 
in  accordance  with  fixed  principles,  when  viewed  as 
a  whole,  presents  a  remarkably  symmetrical  picture, 
no  matter  from  what  angle  it  is  looked  at. 

Will  his  writings  always  be  popular?  Ahoays  is  a 
long  time,  and  the  men  divinely  appointed  to  supply 


206  JOSIAII   GILBERT   HOLLAND 

the  mental  pabulum  of  their  time,  and  who  speak  the 
potent  word  to  it,  appear  duly  in  their  epoch,  being 
an  inseparable  and  foreordained  part  of  it,  though  the 
thoughts  to  which  they  give  utterance  maybe  as  old 
as  the  Garden  of  Eden  itself.  If  we  look  back  and  ask 
who  reads  the  authors  that  were  adored  and  canonized 
in  the  middle  of — say  the  last  century — we  shall  have 
to  own  that  the  reading  is  confined  to  a  limited  circle 
of  persons  justly  called  literati,  and  scholars  with 
specialties  to  study  up.  In  his  own  appointed  time 
this  Great  Apostle  to  the  Plain  People  did  a  great 
work  :  his  thought  and  impulse  is  "built  in"  to  the 
characters  of  a  generation  of  noble  men  and  women, 
who  are  still  impressing  their  day  with  lofty  views  of 
Duty,  at  whose  shrine  he  ever  faithfully  worshipped. 

He  left  the  beloved  wife,  who  now  resides  in 
Orange,  N.  J.  ;  two  daughters — Annie,  married  to  Mr. 
John  Kasson  Howe,  now  of  Alban}',  N.  Y.  ;  Kate,  the 
wife  of  Mr.  Bleecker  Van  Wagenen  (of  Dodd,  Mead 
&  Co.,  New  York)— and  Mr.  Theodore  Holland,  of 
Denver,  Col.,  also  married,  all  settled  in  the  home- 
life  that  wras  so  precious  to  their  father. 

The  record  on  his  monument  shows  his  age  to 
have  been  sixty-two  years — not  a  long  life  as  men 
ordinarily  reckon  longevity,  but  very  long  meas- 
ured by  the  poet's  standard  : 

"  We  should  count  time  by  heartthrobs.     He  most  lives 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best." 


HIS   LAST   RESTING-PLACE  207 

When  Mr.  Samuel  Bowles  lay  dying  he  said : 
"There  is  nothing  the  matter  of  me  but  thirty-five 
years  of  hard  work,"  and  if  one  cons  the  list  of  suc- 
cessful editors  they  are  not  a  long-lived  race,  and  as 
it  is  "  not  work  but  worry  that  kills,"  it  is  easy  to  be- 
lieve that  the  pressure  to  have  just  so  much  done  on 
time  creates  the  necessity  for  a  strenuous  style  of 
effort,  under  which  the  very  springs  of  life  must 
eventually  snap.  That  last  sentence  from  Dr.  Hol- 
land's pen,  lying  as  he  left  it  on  his  desk  for  the 
"next  issue,"  was  a  picture  of  the  editorial  life  and 
its  ceaseless  demands. 

He  sleeps  in  the  Springfield  Cemetery — in  sight 
of  the  Mount  Holyoke  that  formed  the  background 
of  all  his  early  imaginings,  and  of  which  he  has 
written,  "  it  is  a  field  laid  out  by  God's  own  hand  as 
a  sleeping-place  for  his  children.  A  tinkling  brook 
dragged  its  silver  chain  over  the  pebbles  through 
the  midst  of  it,  and  old  gnarled  oaks  with  scanty 
foliage  spread  their  arms  and  nodded  upon  its  hill- 
sides, and  maples  rose  on  every  hand,  so  darkly  and 
freshly  green  in  summer,  and  so  richly  draped  in 
gold  and  purple  in  autumn,  that  they  betrayed  the 
crystal  springs  which  gushed  at  their  roots,  and 
laughed  and  played  like  children  among  the  alders. 
The  springs  had  been  taught  a  new  path  to  the  val- 
ley, and  there  sprang  like  living  trees,  swaying  and 
dissolving,  sighing  and  whispering,  in  the  midst  of 


208  JOSIAII   GILBERT  HOLLAND 

their  crystal  basins.  ...  To  this  beautiful  spot 
were  borne  the  dead.  It  became  the  resting-place  of 
the  people — so  beautiful  that  the  living  never  tired 
of  wandering  through  it,  and  lingering  in  it,  and  so 
sweet  with  its  music  of  brooks  and  trees  and  foun- 
tains, and  the  sight  and  smell  of  flowers,  that  death 
became  more  amiable  in  the  association." 

His  family  have  erected  to  his  memory  a  monu- 
ment of  granite,  which  bears  in  one  face  a  most  ac- 
curate and  life-like  bronze  medallion  of  him.  The 
capital  is  surrounded  by  a  wreath  of  the  Bitter- 
sweet that  he  endowed  with  an  imperishable  vitality, 
and  on  one  face  are  engraved  those  words  from  his 
will,  which  reveal  the  fountain  whence  he  derived 
this  strength  and  show  the  ideal  that  was  as  a  pillar 
of  fire  by  night  to  him  : 

"I  am  thankful  for  having  enjoyed  the  privileges 
of  labor  and  influence,  thankful  for  wife  and  chil- 
dren, thankful  for  all  my  successes.  I  have  inten- 
tionally and  consciously  wronged  no  man,  and  if  I 
know  my  heart  I  have  forgiven  all  my  enemies. 
For  the  great  hereafter  I  trust  in  the  Infinite  Love, 
as  it  is  expressed  to  me  in  the  life  and  death  of  my 
Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ." 


DR.  HOLLAND'S    GRAVE 
At  Springfield,  Mass 


Dr.  J.  G.  Holland's  Works 


The  extraordinary  popularity  of  Dr.  Holland's  works  shows 
no  falling  off  from  year  to  year.  Already  the  sale  of 
his  books  has  reached  the  enormous  total  of  about  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  copies,  and  his  audience  is  con- 
stantly widening.  His  appeal  is  to  the  universal  popular 
heart. 


COMPLETE  WORKS.  16  vols.,  small  i2mo,  in  a 
box,  cloth,  $20.00  ;  half  calf,  $44.00  ;  half  morocco, 
gilt  top,  $46.00.     See  next  page  for  single  volumes. 

ILLUSTRATED  EDITION.  14  vols,  (omitting 
"  Every-Day  Topics"),  i2mo,  cloth,  $20.00.  Sold 
only  in  sets. 

COMPLETE  POETICAL  WRITINGS.  In  one  vol., 
with  Illustrations  by  C.  S.  Reinhart,  C.  C.  Gris- 
wold,  and  Mary  Halleck  Foote,  and  Portrait  by 
Wyatt  Eaton.  8vo,  cloth,  $3.50;  half  calf,  extra, 
$7.50  ;    full  Turkey  morocco,  $9.00. 

ILLUSTRATED  LIBRARY  OF  FAVORITE 
SONG.  Edited  by  Dr.  Holland  A  collection  of 
the  most  popular  and  best-known  poems.  With 
125  Illustrations.     8vo,  cloth,  $5.00;  half  calf  $7.50, 


DR.    HOLLAND'S    WORKS. 


"Dr.  Holland  7vi  11  always  find  a  congenial  aicdiejice  in  the 
homes  of  culture  and  refinement.  He  does  not  affect  the  play 
of  the  darker  and  fiercer  passions,  but  delights  in  the  sweet 
images  that  cluster  around  the  domestic  hearth.  He  cherishes 
a  strong  fellow-feeling  with  the  pure  and  tranquil  life  in  the 
modest  social  circles  of  the  American  people,  and  has  thus  won 
his  way  to  the  companionship  of  many  friendly  hearts." 

— N.  Y.  Tribune. 


POEMS. 


Each,  Small  121110,  $1.25. 


BITTER-SWEET. 

"It  is  a  suggestive  and  original  poem.  Vigor  and  force  and  imagi- 
native beauty  are  to  be  found  in  it." — Athenceurn. 

"A  dramatic  poem  which  is  characteristically  American,  showing  a 
great  command  of  versification  and  purity  of  style.  This  poem  shows 
that  Dr.  Holland  is  a  man  of  genius." — Boston  Post. 

KATHRINA. 

"It  is  a  genuine  outgrowth  of  the  author's  poetic  instincts  and 
moral  convictions.  It  is  sweet  with  purity  and  noble  with  aspiration. 
It  is  thoughtful  and  earnest  and  most  sincere.  Its  reverence  for 
woman  is  religious.  Dr.  Holland  will  be  numbered  with  Hawthorne 
as  one  who  saw  the  soul  of  beauty  under  the  sordid  guise  of  New 
England  life  and  character."— Independent. 

MISTRESS  OF  THE   MANSE. 
"  Dr.  Holland's  writings  touch  a  responsive  chord  in  the  heart  of  the 
reader.     There  is  a  great  deal  of  human   nature  in  what  he  says. 
Hence  the  popularity  of  Dr.  Holland's  productions.    The  '  Mistress  of 
the  Manse  '  is  a  charming  story,  admirably  told  in  verse." 

— Albany  Argus. 

THE  PURITAN'S  GUEST,  AND  OTHER  POEMS. 

"  If  we  mistake  not,  our  readers  will  recognize  with  us  the  genius  of 
a  true  poet,  with  a  rare  wealth  of  poetic  sympathies,  profound  obser- 
vation of  the  workings  of  human  passion,  and  the  creative  power  to 
clothe  his  conception  in  expressive  forms."— New  York  Tribune. 


DR.    HOLLAND'S    WORKS. 


ESSAYS. 


Each,  Small  x2tno,  $1.25. 


TITCOMB'S  LETTERS  TO  YOUNG  PEOPLE. 
"We  have  never  read  a  work  which  better  inculcates  the  several 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  young  men  and  women,  married  or 
single.  The  strong  common  sense  which  pervades  them,  the  frank 
and  manly  utterance  of  wholesome  truths  in  pointed  and  beautiful 
language,  and  the  genial  sympathy  which  the  author  has  for  those 
whom  he  addresses,  cannot  fail  to  commend  the  work  to  general 
favor." — London  Literary  Gazette. 

GOLD    FOIL    HAMMERED    FROM    POPULAR    PROVERBS. 

"Sensible  and  instructive,  and  deserves  to  be  read  and  pondered  by 
old  and  young." — Boston  Advertiser. 

"  Full  of  good  sense  and  written  in  good,  sound  English.  They  are 
better  than  the  hammered  foil — they  are  the  virgin  metal,  pure, 
precious,  and  solid." — Providence  Journal. 

LESSONS  IN  LIFE. 

"  Wisdom  admirably  put.  We  find  in  the  pages  of  this  new  venture 
so  many  healthy  maxims  and  so  much  excellent  advice,  that  we  hope 
the  volume  will  spread  itself  farther  and  wider  than  any  of  its  prede- 
cessors."— Atlantic  Monthly. 

CONCERNING  THE  JONES  FAMILY. 
"Dr.  Holland's  Jones  family  includes  in  its  members  many  diverse 
characters,  and  his  remarks  upon  them  are  a  continuation  of  his  home- 
like and  natural  philosophy  which  has  been  so  highly  appreciated." 
— San  Francisco  Alla-Califoniia. 

PLAIN  TALKS  ON  FAMILIAR  SUBJECTS. 
"His  views  are  so  true,  so  indisputable,  so  often  disregarded  in  the 
practices  of  this  vain  world,  that  we  can  commend  them  as  a  consum- 
mate mixture  of  the  useful  with  the  agreeable." — Boston  Recorder. 

EVERY-DAY  TOPICS— First  Series,  Second  Series. 
"  The  volumes  include  short  essays  on  politics,  religion,  temperance, 
education,  literature,  woman's  suffrage,  health,  dress,  amusements, 
and,  indeed,  nearly  every  subject  that  could  engage  a  magazine  editor's 
attention,  all  treated  in  an  entertaining  style  and  from  a  high  moral 
standpoint."— Detroit  News. 


DR.    HOLLAXDS    WORKS. 


NOVELS 


Each,  Small  121110,  $1.25. 


SEVENOAKS. 
"  One  of  the  best  of  Dr.  Holland's  novels.  It  tells  in  a  graphic  and 
highly  moral  manner  of  the  apparent  success  and  final  downfall  of  the 
sleek  and  wily  villain,  Belcher,  the  owner  of  Sevenoaks.  It  is  written 
with  spirit,  and  has  bits  of  description  and  character  painting,  which, 
with  a  plausible  plot,  holds  the  reader's  attention." 

— Philadelphia  Press. 

ARTHUR  BONNICASTLE. 
"  In  '  Arthur  Bonnicastle,'  as  all  know,  there  is  an  autobiographical 
element,  for  which,  if  for  nothing  else,  it  will  always  be  especially 
cherished  by  Dr.  Holland's  admirers." — Buffalo  Courier. 

"  The  pleasant  ingenuity  of  tone  and  faultlessness  of  moral  which 
characterize  the  'Bay-Path'  equally  distinguish  'Arthur  Bonnicastle.' 
The  story  is  of  American  college  life." 

— Milwaukee  Evening  Wisconsin. 

NICHOLAS  MINTURN. 
"  No  more  wholesome  and  helpful  reading  for  most  minds  can  be 
found  in  the  literature  of  this  generation  than  Dr.  Holland's  books. 
The  young  man  or  woman  who  does  not  rise  from  '  Arthur  Bonni- 
castle '  or  '  Nicholas  Minturn '  stimulated  to  hopeful  effort  is  either 
inconceivably  stupid  or  irreclaimably  bad." — New  London  Telegram. 

BAY-PATH. 

"Beyond  doubt  one  of  the  most  characteristic,  deeply  interesting, 
and  powerfully-written  American  novels  which  we  have  ever  read." 

— Philadelphia  Bulletin. 

"  It  portrays,  in  vividly,  truthfully  painted  colors,  the  struggles  of  a 
heroic  spirit  against  the  environments  of  the  earliest  colonial  days  of 
Massachusetts." — St.  Paul  Dispatch. 

MISS  GILBERT'S  CAREER. 
"'Miss   Gilbert's  Career'    contains   the    amusing    but    instructive 
account  of  the  search  of  a  young  authoress  for  a  publisher  and  how, 
when  one  was  found,  he  advertised  her  book — amusing,  we  mean,  to 
all  but  publishers." — Worcester  Gazette. 

*** Sevenoaks  and  Arthur  Bonnicastle  are  also  issued  in  the  Yellow 
Paper  Series,  paper  covers,  50  cents  each. 


i 


N_> 


*7    •r^'f.^.^lii^. 

HI    US 

SB  v~i«j 

HBH         88 


Hi 

BH     H 


"  I 


»9 

9 


